YEATS, Jack B. The Fancy by John Hamilton Reynolds. With a Prefaratory Memoir and Notes by John Masefield.

Illustrated by Jack B. Yeats. London: Elkin, [1905]. Post octavo. pp. 88. Title printed in black within a red ruled border. Original printed grey wrappers, titled in blue. Cover a little stained. A very good copy in custom made clamshell box.
Originally published in 1820 under the pseudonym of Peter Corcoran (a famous boxer of the 1770s). John Hamilton Reynolds (1796-1852) is today best remembered as a close friend of Keats. His first volume of verse was published in 1814, and he initially devoted most of his time to literature and sport, but from about 1818 onwards (particularly after the death of Keats in 1820) he became more committed to his legal career. John Masefield, in his introduction to this edition, notes that The Fancy was written shortly before Reynolds’ marriage, and suggests that it can be viewed as ‘his final parting with his youth, his poetry, and the forbidden delights of youth. Peter Corcoran was born in Shrewsbury in 1794. Both his parents were Irish and left Carlow for Shropshire after their marriage.

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