This poetry book is titled "The Martyr Of Antioch: A Dramatic Poem", written by The Rev. H. H. Milman, Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, and published in London by John Murray in 1822 and printed at Whitefriars in London by Thomas Davison. The poem is based on the matrydom of Saint Margaret, daughter of Callias, the Priest of Apollo and a heathen priest, and it takes place in Antioch, in Syria (now called Antakya in Turkey) at the end of the third century. The plot: Olybius the Prefect is in love with Margarita, and she returned his love, but this was when she was a heathen, and she has since converted to Christianity. Her father and Olybius are both unaware that she has become a Christian, and now she rejects the idea of all union with a heathen, and she has to make choices. Eventually the Prefect admits he took a path he shouldn't have with Margarita, and he decides to follow the edict of the Emperor and put all Christians to death. Uh-oh for Margarita in Margaritaville - she is caught praying at a funeral for a fellow Christian, her father finds out and asks her to sacrifice to Apollo, and she tells him that she cannot - he asks her if she denies the god of Antioch, she replies, "No god is he …". Enter Olybius, who is left alone with Margarita; she confesses she is a Christian and tells him her faith is the path to glory, and if he will learn and believe in Jesus Christ, then she can be his. Alas, no, he curses her religion and sends her off to prison, then she is brought forward and required to make her choice. She proclaims her faith in Christ and seals her fate. The poem became the basis for an oratorio by Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. It was a choral work described as a sacred musical drama, and W. S. Gilbert assisted him in adapting the poem to a libretto. And if you don't recognize the names Gilbert and Sullivan, they collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are the best known. Henry Hart Milman (1791 - 1868) was an English historian and clergyman who was also a poetry professor at the University of Oxford; he won the Newdigate prize with a poem on the Apollo Belvidere in 1812, was elected a fellow of Brasenose in 1814, and in 1816 he won the English essay prize with his Comparative Estimate of Sculpture and Painting. He was ordained in 1816 and two years later became parish priest of St. Mary's in Reading. In 1829, Milman also published his History of the Jews, which is memorable as the first work by an English clergyman which treated the Jews as an Oriental tribe, recognized sheikhs and amirs in the Old Testament, sifted through documentary evidence, and evaded or minimized the miraculous. In consequence, the author was attacked and his promotion (preferment) in the clergy was delayed. The book is 3/4 bound, with four horizontal lines in gilt on the spine, gilt decorations and the title of the book in plain letters on the spine, marbled covers, blank endpapers with the armorial bookplate of Sir George Huffner, Bart (Baronet) on the front paste-down, the title page, a three-page Introduction about the history of Saint Margaret, a one page Note with Greek stanzas, 168 pages of text, no publisher's ads, and the book is a first edition, according to WorldCat. The book is 8vo. and measures 8 5/8 x 5 1/2 in. wide, with a tight binding, some clear pages and occasional foxing, offset from the bookplate on the front flyleaf and from the text on the last page, rubbing and fading on the spine, wear along the edges of the spine and along the borders of the covers, wear at the tips, slight loss at the crown, and still a great book with religious and romantic overtones, and oh, would Jimmy Buffet be proud. #93 #1623