A Complete Collection of the Lives, Speeches Private Passages, Letters and Prayers of Those Persons lately Executed

"He was not so much thrown off the Ladder by the Executioner, but went as readily off himself. After which the sentence was executed upon him; his members were cut off, and with his bowels burnt, his Head was severed from his body, and on Tuesday following set on Westminster-Hall Gate; and his four Quarters were ordered to be set upon the Gates of the City of London."

I have a box of 17th and 18th century books that I have gradually been researching and selling. Tonight I picked one out of the box called "A Complete Collection of the Lives, Speeches Private Passages, Letters and Prayers of Those Persons lately Executed." I started reading it because the title sounded fascinating. If you think that the King James version of the Bible is a tough read, you should try reading this thing. It was printed in 1661, 50 years after the original King James bible. The King James bible, however, has gone through numerous revisions to modernize it. The spelling, capitalization, and character uses are strange at best. Most of the "s" are printed like "f." The spelling is quite different. I've seen letters that were printed upside down, repeated words and words are split in the strangest places. The book does have some marvelous quotes and is thus far rather inspiring. I will share some of those quotes with you in a later blog. I think I may read one more chapter and call it a day. Plus, I don't want to handle a 350 year old book too much. Its probably worth a small fortune.

For your amusement, here are some of the words in the book:
compleat - complete
occafionall - occasional
askt - asked
easie - easy
kindnesse - kindness
sheriffe - sheriff
joyn - join
serjeant - sargent