The Bard - a stipple engraving. About Thomas Gray's Ode 'The Bard'.

C. Taylor. SHELLEY, Samuel (after). TAYLOR, Charles (sculp.) The Bard. London, Published May 1, 1786, by C. Taylor, No. 20 near Castle Street, Holborn. Stipple engraving printed in brown ink, 210 × 165 mm (sheet). Oval bust portrait within rectangular plate mark; after a design by Samuel Shelley, engraved by Charles Taylor. With engraved title and quotation below: "Visions of glory! spare my aching sight, / Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul." (Gray's Ode). Wide margins; clear plate mark. Very small loss to upper right corner of sheet, well clear of image; otherwise clean and well-preserved. Very good.  One of a series of literary and allegorical heads published by Taylor in the later 1780s. The image represents the prophetic Welsh bard of Thomas Gray's 1757 ode, addressing Edward I, Plantagenet King, from the mountains of Snowdonia. . Very Good. Soft cover. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. 1786.