LUSUS REGIUS A Volume of Hitherto Unpublished Autograph Works by KING JAMES THE FIRST OF ENGLAND AND SIXTH OF SCOTLAND Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria graciously accepted the Dedication of the Volume scarcely a month before her lamented death. The title-page is an exact collotype reproduction, mutatis mutandis^ of the beautiful title-page specially designed and engraved for the folio edition of the king's works, published under his own supervision in 1 6x6. The text is accompanied by several Collotype Reproductions of the pages of the book, and by the courteous permission of Sir Robert Gresley, Baronet, the frontispiece is a fine portrait of King James, which has never hitherto been published. Of this unique and highly interesting work 275 copies only have been printed, of which 250 nunibered copies only are for sale. 13 x 9|- inches. Price 425. net. ATHENj^UM : * These are for literary history nothing short of treasure trove. . . . The poems interest chiefly because they are history. A very pleasant reflection of the man and his time. Mr. Rait is to be complimented.' DAILY NETVS : ' Messrs. Archibald Constable & Co. have produced Mr. Rait's edition of Lusus Regius in a most sumptuous form. It contains a portrait of the Royal author, James I., which has only been privately reproduced before ; the original design executed for the title- page of 1 616 5 and several MSS., now published for the first time from a copy found in the Bodleian Library, and evidently written by the dreamy son of Mary Stuart and Lord Darnley in his earlier years. They all show traces of the influence of his tutors, George Buchanan and Sir Peter Seaton, in an artificial atmosphere of their humanistic pedantry 5 but they place the character of the king in a somewhat novel and certainly attractive light, and the verses " On Women " are a graceful proof of his sportsmanlike knowledge of Scotch natural history. ... In binding, type, and paper the volume leaves nothing to be desired.' LITERATURE : *A sumptuous and beautiful book is Lusus Regius. . . . The volume is an interesting one, and our best thanks are due to the editor. Perhaps the last instance of her late Majesty's sentiment towards the Stewarts was her consent to accept the dedication of this book, which is now inscribed to her memory.' SCOTSMAN: * It is a rare, if not unexampled, thing that meritorious specimens of poetic art from a kingly hand should have to wait for some three centuries before being given to the world ; and one thinks none the worse of James for having withheld some of the fruits of his " ingyne " from a public that in his day was ready to applaud anything that he wrote. . . . Great interest attaches to the unpublished MSS. that alone are printed and provided with introductions by the editor of the beautiful work, which Mr. Rait has inscribed to the memory of Queen Victoria, who before her death accepted the dedication of these poems by her " direct lineal ancestor." * ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO Ltd 2 WHITEHALL GARDENS WESTMINSTER
