Chatterton (Thomas).- [Croft (Sir Herbert)] Love and Madness. A Story too True. In a Series of Letters, first edition, errata to verso of title, ink ownership inscription to head of title, very occasional light spotting, some leaves slightly trimmed, slightly rubbed, G. Kearsly, 1780 § Chatterton (Thomas) Poems, Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century, fifth edition, edited by Lancelot Sharpe, additional engraved vignette title, engraved facsimile plate to face p.197, B. Flower, 1794, later half calf, 8vo (2)*** The scarce first edition of Croft's novel based on the murder of Martha Reay, an opera singer and mistress of Lord Sandwich, who was shot by a jealous lover James Hackman at Covent Garden in 1779. Much of the work concerns literary forgeries particularly those of Thomas Chatterton in his adoption of the Thomas Rowley persona. Croft had fraudulently obtained letters relating to Chatterton from the poet's sister and was subsequently exposed by Robert Southey.Complimented by a contemporary edition of Chatterton's Rowley Poems, containing the first printing of Coleridge's Monody on the Death of Chatterton, only the poet's second appearance in print.