The Doom of King Acrisius

New York: R. H. Russell, 1902. First Edition. hardcover. Good+. 8 3/4" × 7" (22.2 × 17.8 cm) . Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. First Printing. Illustrated by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. 8vo. Bound in publisher's original hardcover full ivory buckram, gilt titling and decoration. Uncut, deckled edges. Gilt top edge. xvi, [2], 82 pp. 12 full page b/w plates by Burne-Jones, several smaller b/w illustrations tipped in, ornamental capitals. A retelling in verse of the lives of Acrisius, Danaë, and Perseus. Acrisius, king of Argos, being warned by an oracle that the son of his daughter Danaë should slay him, shut her up in a brazen tower built for that end beside the sea: there, though no man could come nigh her, she nevertheless bore a son to Jove, and she and her new-born son, set adrift on the sea, came to the island of Seriphos. Thence her son, grown to manhood, set out to win the Gorgon's Head, and accomplished that end by the help of Minerva; and afterwards rescued Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, from a terrible doom, and wedded her. Coming back to Seriphos he took his mother thence, and made for Argos, but by stress of weather came to Thessaly, and there, at Larissa, accomplished the prophecy, by unwittingly slaying Acrisius. In the end he founded the city of Mycenae, and died there. [Morris, The Earthly Paradise] Includes an essay on Morris's & Burne-Jones's work on this book, by Fitzroy Carrington. Bookplate of Layra Moses. Spine greatly darkened and gilt titles mostly rubbed off. Covers mildly darkened. Internally immaculate. Some slight age toning to endpapers and illustration plates. Otherwise bright and unmarked. Condition overall: Good+.