Part of Lucian made English from the Originall. In the Yeare 1638. ; [Trans. Jasper Mayne and Francis Hicks]

Oxford: Printed by H Hall for R Davis, 1663. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Ist edition of the Mayne translation 2nd edition of Hickes translation. This edition of Lucian is thus the first substantially complete edition in English. Prior to the publication of the 9 Dialogues translated by Hickes (d. 1631) at Oxford in 1634, only two of Lucian's Dialogues had been translated into English and published in book form. Mayne's translation of fifty had been made in 1638 for the private entertainment of Sir William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, but left in manuscript. When Mayne finally allowed them to be published it appears that an agreement was made to include the Hickes translations as well. The joint volume first appeared 1663. This is the 1st issue with both title pages dated 1663 (the 2nd issue has the date changed to 1664 on the first title page and adds an engraved portrait of Lucian by William Faithorne the Elder). Includes "Lucian His True Historie" and "Icaromenippus, or the Loftie Traveller" (also known as "Above the Clouds"), as well as other fantastic dialogues and pieces. Lucian's "Verae Historiae," dating from the 2nd century A.D., is the ". earliest surviving interplanetary romance; a satire in which a sailing ship's crew is carried by a whirlwind to an inhabited moon." - Locke, Voyages in Space 002. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997). pp. 597-98. Collation: Small folio, two parts in one volume; pp. [1-16] 1-398 [399-400] [1-16] 1- 200, seventeenth century full calf, front and rear panels ruled and tooled in gold, spine panel ruled in gold, spine rebacked with the original laid down, scrap paper 16th century leaves used as paste-downs, very good. Custom quarter morocco box. Lucian is a major proto-figure for fantasy, not only for his "True Historie," but also for "Icaromenippus" and other fantastic dialogues and pieces collected here. Lucian "was one of the first great fantasists, satirizing the old producing material that was knowingly fiction, gods but using supernatural plot devices. His most important works were his Dialogues, a form he derived from Plato (427-347 BC); they have been imitated by scores of writers from the 15th century on. His Menippus sequence, 'Menippus' (also known as 'Necyomantia) and 'Icaromenippus,' shows an old philosopher endeavouring to discover the meaning and realities of life, first through discussions with the dead in the underworld and then with the gods on Olympus. In 'Charon' the ferryman over the Styx leaves the underworld to explore life. It is perhaps Lucian's most expressive form of reverse perception, again highlighting the pettiness of humanity. Others of Lucian's Dialogues are more philosophical than fantastic, although in 'Gallo' ['The Cock;' also known as 'The Dream'] a cobbler is rendered invisible by a cock's magic tail feathers so he can spy on the rich and discover they are less happy than he. Lucian's most famous work is 'Verae Historiae' ['True History'], which takes its intrepid voyagers to the Moon and past the Sun as well as to many distant islands; it is a parody of the travellers' tales that were already multitudinous in Lucian's day. Lucian's works were translated into Latin by Erasmus (1466-1536) and later writers, and were a significant influence on Francois Rabelais, Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655), Jonathan Swift and others.