Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand - 1898: A Heroic Comedy

London: John Lane, 1912. Handsomely bound in period 3/4 Red Levant and Marbled Boards, gilt titles at spine, top edge gilt, ribbon marker, with 16 black and white plates by Aubrey Beardsley. A Fine and quite lovely copy of this classic Oscar Wilde play. . First EditionThus. 3/4 Levant and Marbled Boards. Fine. Illus. by Aubrey Beardsley . 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.

1699 1ed Jeremey Collier Defense of Short View of English Theater Puritan Plays

Jeremy Collier was a 17th-century English theater critic who, in 1698, wrote a highly controversial attack on English comedies. 'Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage' was filled with Collier's views on what he considered to be profanity and immorality in English plays. He believed plays should be providing moral encouragement, rather than encouraging unethical vices.

Immediately after Collier's 'Short View' was released, playwrights quickly responded with their own attacks on Collier's views. Naturally, Collier published his own defense of his 'Short View' which focused heavily on the content William Congreve's plays.

This 1699 first edition of 'Defense' is a fine printing of the literary war between Puritan restrictions and English dramatists!
Item number: #7812
Price: $750
COLLIER, Jeremy

A defence of the Short view of the profaneness and immorality of the English stage, being a reply to… Read More

1854 Shakespeare Macbeth Taming of Shrew Hamlet Romeo & Juliet 6v SET

"What light through yonder window breaks."
– Shakespeare

This beautiful collection of the works of William Shakespeare is a fantastic gathering of some of the most famous and important plays and poetry by the most prolific English playwright. This beautiful, six-volume set was published in New York, revised by Isaac Reed who used the famed editions of Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Like many collected works, this set features the famed plays such as 'Tempest', 'Taming of the Shrew', 'Hamlet', and 'Macbeth'.
Item number: #15670
Price: $795
SHAKESPEARE, William
The dramatic works of William Shakspeare : with the corrections and illustrations of Dr. Johnson, G. Steevens, and others
New York : Harper & Bros., Publishers, 1854.

Details:

· Collation: Complete with all pages – 6 volumes
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Vol. I – 524
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Vol. II – 544
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Vol. III – 518
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Vol. IV – 538
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Vol. V – 518
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Vol. VI – 617, [1]
·… Read More

Complete set of 18 volumes of the first edition of John Bell's British Theatre with the de Wilde portraits."In 1793, the year of his first bancrupty, the beleaguered Bell bound up and sold the first 90 numbers of the new de Wilde-illustrated edition without general volume title pages." (Kalman A. Burnim and Philip H. Highfill Jr.). This set conforms to that description: volumes 1 to 18, each with five plays complete with all 90 title pages and theatrical portraits by Samuel de Wilde, engraved by John Chapman, lacking volume titles. Portraits include actors, actresses and opera singers of the Georgian stage including Sarah Siddons, John Philip Kemble, Robert Baddeley, Isabella Mattocks, Charles Lee Lewes, Harriet Pye Esten, Elizabeth Billington, Anna Maria Crouch, Anna Selina Storace, Joseph George Holman, Elizabeth Younge (later Pope),etc.Vol. 1: Comus by John Milton, Maid of the Mill, School for Fathers and Love in a Village by Isaac Bickerstaff, The Beggar's Opera by John Gay. Vol. 2: Venice… Read More

Incomplete run of 17 volumes (of 21) of the second edition of John Bell's British Theatre, the first published in 1776-78.Volumes 1-12 and 14-19 (missing volumes 13, 14, 20, 21), each with five plays complete, with all 17 frontispieces and 85 fold-out theatrical portraits by James Roberts, engraved by Reading, Thornthwaite, Walker, etc. Portraits include actors, actresses and opera singers of the Georgian stage including Sarah Siddons, Thomas Sheridan, David Garrick, Ann Barry, Mary Ann Yates, Joseph Vernon, Priscilla Hopkins, Ann Brown, etc.Vol. 1: Tragedies: Zara by Aaron Hill, Venice Preserved by Thomas Otway, Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe, The Siege of Damascus by John Hughes, The Distrest Mother by Ambrose Philips. Vol. 2: Comedies: The Provok'd Wife by John Vanburgh, Every Man in his Humour by Ben Jonson, The Beaux Stratagem by George Farquhar, The Old Batchelor by William Congreve, The Committee by R. Howard.Vol. 3: Tragedies: The Earl of Essex by Henry Jones, Tamerlane by Nicholas Rowe, The… Read More

Chicago, Illinois:: Theodora Press,, 1991.. Edition of 10. 7.5 x 13.25"; 28 pages. Accordion fold. 15 hand-colored etchings. Letterpress titling, ornaments, and colophon. Printed on Rives lightweight. Bound in a top-fold accordion with gatefold opening. Signed and numbered by the artist. Teresa Pankratz: "'Pas de Deux' is a visual narrative depicting a couple's frustrated attempt at intimacy. Bound by self-imposed constrictions, they reach out - but never quite touch. "This tale was inspired by a performance piece entitled 'Nothing Up Your Sleeve' performed by Nan Shineflug and Jeff Abell of the Chicago Moving Company (one of the first modern dance troupes in the Midwest)." The French pun - pas de deux as dance duet for two, and pas meaning not - underscores the point. The beauty of the etchings and the delicacy of the construction turn what might have been a vaudeville skit into a poignant story.

Volume 7 only of the 10-volume collection of stage portraits from the mid-19th century.Title page with vignette and 83 (of 100) handcoloured lithographic plates of actors, opera singers and ballet dancers in costume of their roles by Alexandre Lacauchie, Victor Dollet and Louis Lassalle, lithographed by Decan and Destouches, Paris.Includes the famous Italian ballerinas Fanny Cerrito and Caroline Rosati, French dancer Marie Guy-Stephan, actress Mlle. Alphonsine, soprano Marie-Charlotte Lemercier, and many more mid-century stars.Missing plates 601 603 606 607 609 614 619 625 637 638 670 671 674 675 681 697 and 700.The series was published from 1844-1870 in 10 volumes with 1,000 plates.Condition: Half red buckram split on the gutter, marble boards scuffed, but plates bright and vivid with fine handcolour, a few slightly spotted.Considered to be the most important French artists gallery of the 19th century.Alexandre Lacauchie (1814-1886) was a French painter, engraver and lithographer. Jean Francois… Read More

New York: Horace Liveright, Inc., 1931. Hardcover in slipcase. Good/No Jacket, as issued. SIGNED Presentation Copy in Slipcase, #524 of the special limited edition (501-550 were for presentation). Signed by O'Neill in black ink. Though not indicated, this volume is from the library of T. R. Smith, chief editor and adviser at Liveright throughout its heyday in the 1920s and responsible for publishing some of O'Neill's works (including an early volume of one-act plays and Strange Interlude in 1928). Trilogy of plays containing Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. Includes Working Notes and Extracts from a fragmentary work diary, facsimile pages inserted in rear pocket. Stained & spotted white vellum with beveled edges, gilt-stamping and black spine label. Scarce slipcase in fair condition with fragile & cracked edges and old tape repairs. Binding solid and untrimmed/uncut, but covers are rather spotted & darkened. O'Neill was a Puitzer and Nobel Prize winning American playwright, considered one of… Read More

Copy of the the original playbill of the first performance of "Seven Keys to Baldpate." The play premiered on Broadway on September 22, 1913 at the Astor Theatre and ran for 320 performances. This 1913-14 play by George Cohan is based on a novel by Earl Derr Biggers. The dramatization was one of Cohan's most innovative plays. It became a hit, running for nearly a year in New York, another year in Chicago and receiving later revivals; Cohan starred in the 1935 revival. Cohan adapted it as a film in 1917, and it was adapted for film six more times, and later for TV and radio. Bound in full leather. NF condition. Rare.

London: Methuen, 2001. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Printing. A wonderful copy of this first full biography of the 1997 Nobel Prize-winner and his wife and life-long collaborator, the actress & writer Franca Rame. A Fine unread copy in Fine unclipped dustjacket. SIGNED TWICE by Dario Fo - at the front endpaper alongside the signature of Franca Rame - and for a second time at the title page below the signature of the author. Possibly a unique copy, thus. Signed for the seller in person at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.