1646 - Opobalsamum Anglicanum: An English Balme by Geo Wither

Softcover. Condition Good-/Fair. 1646. 1st Edition.

Opobalsamum Anglicanum: An English Balme Lately Pressed out of a Shrub and spread upon these papers for the cure of some scabs, gangreeves. and cancers indangering the bodie of this common wealth and to whom it is now rendered by the Well-affected English in a double speech ditinctively delivered by one of their fellowship both to the faithful and malignant members of the representative body of this kingdome. By George Withers. [London], 1646. Disbound. Title-page is in manuscript facsimile, laid down, and other leaves remargined but original. 

"Opobalsamum Anglicanum" is a political tract by the prolific English poet George Wither. Taking its title from the ancient "balm of Gilead", the work uses the metaphor of an herbal medicine or ointment to propose a peaceful, restorative cure for the political wounds, "scabs," and "cancers" ravaging England during the First English Civil War. 

Published exactly as the Civil War was winding down, this tract outlines Wither’s fervent desire for national healing and order. It is highly symptomatic of Wither’s broader career as a Puritan writer, soldier, and pamphleteer who frequently wove intense religious imagery with social and political grievances