[Rarebooks] fa: GEORGE ETHEREGE - THE COMICAL REVENGE or LOVE IN A TUB - 1697

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, March 31. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y44v3eru

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Sir George Etherege: The Comical Revenge; or, Love in a Tub. As it is now Acted by His Majesty's Eervants. London: Printed by T. Warren for Henry Herringman, and are to be Sold by J. Tonson, F. Saunders, T. Bennet, and K. Bentley, 1697. Quarto (22 cm) in modern marbled wraps and custom clamshell case; [6], 68, [2] pp.; with the final leaf of epilogues. ESTC R10458; Wing E3373.

Light toning to the leaves, heaviest at the edges; a few scattered small spots, a few leaves with modest tears or chipping at the edges, not affecting any text; otherwise unusually clean and fresh, and handsomely presented in modern wraps and clamshell box. An attractive copy.

An early printing of Etherege's first play and the one that launched his spectacular, if unprolific, theatrical career. The play is "important as the first example of English prose comedy, as afterwards seen in Congreve and Sheridan" (Oxford Companion to English Literature) and as "the first comedy in the strict Restoration tradition" (Kunitz & Haycraft). George Etherege (c.1634-1692) was a member in good standing of the dissolute, rowdy circle of wits surrounding the Earl of Rochester — indeed, he took part in Lord Rochester's infamous melee with the watch at Epsom, for which both were temporarily banished from the court of their friend and patron, Charles II. A notorious procrastinator, he wrote only two other plays, She Would if She Could and The Man of Mode.