One of 25 pre-publication draft copies of what would become The Testament of Beauty, printed for the author and distributed to his friends for comment and feedback. This is a known but previously unlocated copy which was presented to the historian and novelist Ernest Thompson as an invitation to criticise and improve his friend’s work. In his 1944 biography of Bridges, Thompson recalls how the poet required ‘real criticism’ from recipients of this private printing: ‘As the draft of the poem complicated and with new themes constantly written in... Bridges asked the Oxford Press to set up a copy and let him use it as the text, correcting in proof. The Press set up twenty copies, so that he might send them to the friends he was consulting. This is the now-famous privately printed text... I suppose I must have been of some service, I am proud of my copy of the first text, with an inscription too kind for me to quote it...’ That inscription, we can reveal, runs: ‘E J Thompson from Rob.t Bridges in gratitude for much kindness Mar. 1927’. Four of the five fascicules originally issued are present here; the final and shortest one is no longer present - it must be assumed that Thompson would have received all five. There are minor authorial corrections scattered through the text. Despite Thompson’s assertion of OUP issuing 20 copies of this trial issue, it’s now understood that fascicules I-IV were issued in an edition of 25 copies and 21 only of fascicule 25. Printed as an adjunct to the final text and never intended to survive its use for critical purposes, this private issue is a twentieth century rarity.
DESCRIPTION:
Fascicule 1, pp24, sewn into a paper wrapper, Bridges’ inscription which he wrote on the verso of the upper cover is visible through a cutout from the handmade outer card binding which was created to protect the text. This improvised binding has an English pastoral watercolour (artist unknown) mounted on the upper cover and the motto ‘DHN. I. RB. 1927’ below. It’s not known whether this was the form in which this draft was presented by Bridges or was made shortly after presentation by Thompson or a relative. Certainly it was only intended to house this fascicule as the spine fold has bulged slightly as this binder has subsequently been used to protect all four fasicules. Bridges has noted ‘Private’ at the head of p1.
Fascicule 2, pp25-56, paper wrappers watermarked ‘T H Saunders’. Inscribed by Bridges ‘to E J Thompson from Robert Bridges Oct 1927.’ Authorial corrections to pp35, 38, 48 (Greek)
Fascicule 3, pp57-90, paper wrappers a little soiled; inscribed ‘E J Thompson from RB June 1928’
Fascicule 4, pp 91-124, paper wrappers, inscribed at head of text: ‘E J Thompson March 1929 from RB’, pencil correction p94, possibly Thompson; ending at line 1135 in this version.
We locate copies of this private issue at Indiana; Cork; BLx2 and Alibris, California. One copy in auction records, Sotheby’s 1977.
The Testament of Beautry is a discursive work, setting out Bridges’ understanding of man's nature, spiced with scenes and incidents from his experience and reading. It was the fruit of a lifetime of thought and reading, being composed after the death of his daughter in 1926, and achieved an unexpected success that continued long after Bridges’ death just a year after the book’s formal publication in 1929. Ernest Thompson was an intimate friend of Bridges’ later years and a copy of his biography of Bridges accompanies the trial issue of the Testament of Beauty.
