[Rarebooks] fa: [THEATRE] THE ACTOR or A TREATISE ON THE ART OF PLAYING 1775 - Sangorski & Sutcliffe Binding

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, January 29. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/7cy66kw

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[John Hill:] The Actor: or, A Treatise on the Art of Playing. A New Work, written by the Author of the Former, and Adapted to the Present State of the Theatres. London: Printed for R. Griffiths, at the Dunciad, in Pater-Noster-Row, MDCCLV [1755]. Second edition, first edition thus. Tall 12mo (16.5 cm) bound in full crushed morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, with spine, borders and turn-ins tooled in gilt; [2] + 284 + [24] pp.; with an index and two final advertisement leaves. ESTC T84928.

An expanded and thoroughly reworked version of the first 1750 edition. "Containing impartial observations on the performance, manner, perfections, and defects of Mr. Garrick, Mr. Barry, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Foot, Mr. Havard, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Berry, &c. Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Pritchard, Miss. Nossiter, Mrs. Gregory, Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Clive, Mrs. Green, Miss Bellamy, &c. In their several Capital Parts." A fascinating and important early treatise on acting, considered the first English work to describe the phenomenon of an actor being identified with a role (e.g. Garrick as Richard III). Hill's treatise runs the gamut from the theoretical to the downright practical, with sections on stage business, age-appropriate casting, declamatory recitation, and the importance of remembering one's lines. "Hill deals with the actor’s ideal as well as actual approach to and execution of a role. His analysis includes criticism as well as discussion of contemporary acting techniques, both physical and vocal" (Judith Warner Fisher, "All the 'Write' Moves: or, Theatrical Gesture in Sense and Sensibility", Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal no. 9, 1987).