Plays Written By Mr. William Wycherley.
£165.00
Publisher
Printed for Benjamin Motte, John Poulson; and Richard, James, and Bethel Wellington.
Place
London
Date
1731
Synopsis
Containing the plain dealer, the country wife, gentleman dancing master, love in a wood.
Item Description
12mo. 6.5 x 4 inches. 450 + [2] pp. + [3] pp. for publisher's advertisements. Separate title page for each play, but register and pagination continuous. Bound in contemporary full calf, gilt, boards with gilt borders; spine later rebacked, in compartments with raised bands, decorated gilt, with contrasting maroon title labels, gilt. Extremities have age related wear, occasional scattered foxing and some browning and chipping of edges of preliminaries; otherwise a very good crisp copy. Decorated by title page, head and tailpiece vignettes and by initials. An early edition of the four plays of the Restoration dramatist, William Wycherley (1640-1716), which originally appeared 1671-76. Of the four, only The Plain Dealer and The Country Wife, which became notorious for its sexual frankness and was not performed from the 1750s to the 1920s, were successful on the stage (ESTC T42456).
[Stock No. 29282]
