The Christian’s consolations against the fears of death, American edition
Description:
The image shows a man sitting up in bed, lifting one hand, as if explaining something. Clothes are drawn in an elaborate fashion with a close attention to such details as buttons and wrinkles. The dying man, on the left, is talking to a young man sitting beside him, who holds his hand and smiles. Next to the bed is nightstand with a book on it. J Yeager, Sc. is inscribed to the bottom left. Beneath the picture two lines are written, "See in what Peace a Christian can die" and "published by Simon Probasco Printer Philad.a."
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Primary Works:
Popular literature
Accession Number:
1816. CK D 81 E 2
Height (in centimeters):
16
Width (in centimeters):
11
Marks Description
Beneath the picture two lines are written, "See in what Peace a Christian can die" and "published by Simon Probasco Printer Philad.a."Edition and State
Fourth EditionPrinting Context
Frontispiece for Charles, Drelincourt, The Christian’s Defences against the fears of death with seasonable directions how to prepare ourselves to die well, printed by Simon Probasco, Philadelphia, 1818.Associated Events
According to the preface, the frontispiece depicts the hour of the death of Joseph Addison, who is accompanied by his nephew, the young earl of Warwick. The Special Collections curator notes, however, that this is erroneous: "Engraved frontispiece portrait of poet Joseph Addison on his deathbed, accompanied by Edward Henry Rich, Earl of Warwick, son of his wife Charlotte Addison, Countess Dowager of Warwick. Rich is erroneously identified as Addison’s nephew on p. iv. Signed: J. Yeager sc."Associated Places
I was not able to find the history of the book’s reception in the United States, but many editions, which were printed all over North America, are still held in American libraries today. The Online Archive of American Libraries shows several hundred hits for the text.Associated Texts
The book first appeared in France under the title of Consolations de l'âme fidèle contre les frayeurs de la mort in 1651. The majority of publishers translated the title as The Christian’s Defence against the fears of death; some British editions, however, translated the title more literally as The Christian’s Consolations against the fears of death.Subject
The frontispiece of the American edition of this volume depicts the moment of death differently from the British version. There are no angels or a welcoming light. The comfort is created through the communication between the dying person and a companion.Theme
Depiction of the hour of death.Significance
The Christian’s Defence was an enormously popular book in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The frontispiece was a new addition in the late eighteenth century. Many earlier editions do not have a frontispiece (see: The Eighteenth Century Online Collection; it alone holds nineteen scanned versions of the text from the eighteenth century).Function
The frontispiece functions as a glimpse into the subject matter of the book. It does induce curiosity on the part of the spectator—the potential reader—but it also works to sum up the book's content.Bibliography
Whelan, Ruth. “Drelincourt, Peter (1644–1722).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Jan. 2008. 20 Mar. 2009 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8045Long Title
The Christian’s consolations against the fears of death : with seasonable directions how to prepare ourselves to die well, written originally in French by Charles Drelincourt ; to which is prefixed, the life of the author, and his behaviour in his last moments, Also published as The Christian’s defence against the fears of death, Translation of: Les consolations de l’ame fidèle contre les frayeurs de la mort, Engraved frontispiece portrait of poet Joseph Addison on his deathbed, accompanied by Edward Henry Rich, Earl of Warwick, son of his wife Charlotte Addison, Countess Dowager of Warwick, Rich is erroneously identified as Addison’s nephew on p. iv. Signed: J. Yeager sc. Philadelphia, Printed and published by Simon Probasco, no. 350, North Second Street., 1818. xviii, [1], 20-612 p., [1] leaf of plates, 1 port., 22 cm. Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial LibraryIllustrator:
Image Date:
1818