THE MADNESS OF MERLIN

Macmillan, London, 1947, 1^st.  Hard cover, 58 pages.  Very good; red cloth with gilt lettering on spine; light wear at bottom spine, light lower front corner wear with a touch of fraying.  Binding sound.  Slightly darkened area on front board with corresponding discoloured area on front of jacket.  Dust jacket has price intact, showing short edge tears, toning, age-spotting and a bit of soil; small losses at spine ends, corners and edges; spine darkened.   Prior owners name and date inked on FEP plus two small pin holes where note was pinned to page.  Laid in is a HAND-WRITTEN NOTE by author (poet, playwright, scholar) to prior owner dated 26 May 1933 (1938?), on British Museum letterhead where he had been employed in the Printed Books department.  Interior pages clean and unmarked with occasional age spot; light spotting on top edge.  'The Madness of Merlin is Part I of an unfinished poem in dramatic form.  It is the major poem which Laurence Binyon had in his mind and was working on during the years before he died.  Its basis is the story of the Welsh prince Merlin, who in the middle of a great battle against the Picts is suddenly appalled, and his mind unhinged, by the sight of the three champions he has killed “suddenly asleep in their strength and their beauty.”  He flees to the terrifying solitude of the forest.  His wife and sister try to lure him back to normal life, but his madness breaks out again and they cannot restrain him from the forest, its terrors and its visions.' (from front flap)