Star Chamber Revels (Or, The Fountayne of Justice). A Satyre Acted on Friday the eleventh day of June, in the yeare 1602 by the then Lords of the Queen Elizabeth’s most honourable Council.

SIMON, Andre L.

$175.00

Item Number: 115807

Peekskill: Printed by Crosby Gaige, 1937.

First edition of Andre L. Simon’s retelling of a day in the life of the Lords of the Star Chamber. Octavo, original boards, engraved headpiece and tailpiece. Signed by the author at the conclusion of his introduction. Very good in the rare original glassine.

The Star Chamber sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late 15th century to the mid-17th century and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the common-law and equity courts in civil and criminal matters. The Star Chamber was originally established to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against socially and politically prominent figures so powerful that ordinary courts would likely hesitate to convict them of their crimes. However, it became synonymous with social and political oppression through the arbitrary use and abuse of the power it wielded.