The Ambitious Step-Mother. A Tragedy.
92, (4) pp.
(Bound with) II: Cibber, [Colley]. The Non-Juror. A Comedy. London [i.e., The Hague], printed for T[homas] J[ohnson] & are sold by the Booksellers of London & Westminster, 1718. 110, (2) pp.
(Bound with) III: Dryden, [John]. All for Love: or, The World Well Lost. A Tragedy. Written in Imitation of Sakespear's [!] Stile. [The Hague], printed for T. Johnson, 1720. 101, (1) pp., final blank leaf.
(Bound with) IV: Banks, John. The Unhappy Favourite: or, The Earl of Essex. A Tragedy. London [i.e., The Hague], printed for the Company [of booksellers; Thomas Johnson], [1711 or 1730?]. 85, (3) pp.
Contemporary full calf with gilt-stamped morocco spine label ("Tragedy") and pretty, florally gilt spine. All edges red. Marbled endpapers. 8vo.
€ 550.00
Pretty sammelband of four English plays (three tragedies and one comedy) of the Restoration Era.
I: Early edition of the first work by Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718), first performed in 1700 and published in 1702. "The imprint is false; printed at the Hague by Thomas Johnson. With a final advertisement leaf headed: 'English plays, neatly & correctly printed, ... & sold by T. Johnson, bookseller in the Hague'" (OCLC).
II: One of several editions in the year of the first publication. Cibber's Whig-inspired version of Molière's "Tartuffe" (with a caustic foreword by Nicholas Rowe) was dedicated to King George I, who rewarded the author with 200 guineas and made him Poet Laureate in 1730.
III: Later edition of Dryden's tragedy in blank verse (first published in 1678), written in imitation of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" and probably still his most frequently performed play.
IV: Later edition of Banks's first dramatic success, "The Unhappy Favourite", a tragedy in blank verse first shown in 1682. John Dryden contributed the Prologue and Epilogue.
Corners and spine-ends bumped, otherwise fine.