£875
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 605
Auction: 17 June 2020 at 11:00 BST
Collection of eleven plays, ten of them by Dryden, one the first edition of his adaptation of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: Dryden, John The Wild Gallant: a Comedy. H. Hills for H. Herringman, 1684, [Wing D2401; MacDonald 72c]; Amboyna: a Tragedy. T.N. for Henry Henringman, 1673, first edition, [Wing D2232; Macdonald 79a; Pforzheimer, 314]; The Rival Ladies: a Tragi-Comedy. T.W. for H. Herringman, 1693, [Wing D2349; Macdonald 67d]; Troilus and Cressida, or, Truth found too late. A Tragedy. For Abel Swall and Jacob Tonson, 1679, first edition of Dryden's version, [Wing D2389; Macdonald 84aii; Pforzheimer, 915], without the single leaf with the Duke poem found in some copies, slight printing flaw or smudge affecting last line of b1 verso; and seven others
Note: Dryden's 1679 version of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida contains a new fifth act, a new preface (a long essay on the grounds of criticism in tragedy, with quotations from Hamlet and Richard III) and a prologue, spoken by the actor Betterton as the ghost of Shakespeare