Chapbooks.- S. (J.) Great Britain's Glory. Being the History of King Arthur; with the Adventures of the Knights of the Round Table, 20pp., title with woodcut vignette, mid-18th century ink signatures of Thomas and John Banks to recto and verso of title, Newcastle upon Tyne, by John White, [c.1720] bound with [Greene (Robert, after)] The History of Dorastus and Fawnia, setting forth their Loves, Misfortunes, and Happy Enjoyment of each Other at Last, 20pp., title with woodcut vignette of the lovers and ornamental border, woodcut initial and illustrations including full-page enthroned king on final leaf, York, by Thomas Gent, [c.1740], 2 works in 1 vol., stitched together, rather soiled and stained, frayed at edges, final leaf of the second torn across (repaired) and with slight loss to lower corner (affecting last 3 lines on recto and border of woodcut on verso), with expert minor restoration, loose in old card wrapper, preserved in modern card folder, cloth chemise and handsome calf-backed drop-back cloth box, gilt-stamped calf label inset on upper cover, 4to

⁂ Two very rare chapbooks, both apparently unrecorded editions. ESTC lists 2 editions of the first (Wing S64 & 65), both London; one of c.1697 (3 copies, 2 in UK), the other of c.1700 (5 copies, 2 in UK). There are various editions of the second item in ESTC, first published under the title Pandosto in 1588. Most were printed in London and none in York. Interestingly there is one printed by John White of Newcastle (one copy only, in Bodleian Oxford). The printer, Thomas Gent, married the widow of John White junior's nephew, John White senior having taken over a printing office in York in 1680 and his son another in Newcastle by 1711, which was later taken over by Gent.

Although Robert Greene was a popular dramatist and pamphleteer at the time he is most well known now for his apparent attack on Shakespeare in Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit published after his death in 1592, in which he describes Shakespeare as an "upstart Crow". The plot of Pandosto served as inspiration for Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.