Irene: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane
JOHNSON, Samuel
Irene: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane
London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1749
Small 8vo., late 19th century half calf, ruled in blind over green paper-covered boards, lettered and dated in gilt to backstrip; red speckled edges; pp. [xi], 2-86, [ii, ads]; a very good copy, lightly sunned in a strip to the lower board; the leather slightly rubbed at edges; some browning, spotting and offsetting to the endleaves; a couple of spots extending to the text block, mostly limited to the prelims; with a later portrait of Johnson tipped to the front fly-leaf. Provenance: Bookplate of Ejnar Christiansen to the front paste-down.
First edition of Johnson’s only play, reportedly printed in a run of just 1000 copies. This example complete with both the half title (priced One Shilling and Six-pence) and the advertising leaf to rear showing additional books printed by the publisher.
Samuel Johnson is one of the most notable men of letters in English history. A prolific writer, poet, editor and lexicographer, amongst many other accomplishments, his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language is still referred to today as one of the most comprehensive and influential dictionaries ever published. Irene was written relatively early in his career, when he was still working in his father’s bookshop. Johnson was just 17 years old at the time, and showed the first drafts of the manuscript to Gilbert Walmisley, then Registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court of Lichfield. Johnson “was making Irene suffer so much in the first part of the play that there would be nothing left for her to suffer in the later part", Walmisley noted, to which the playwright simply replied “I intend to put my heroine into the ecclesiastical court of Lichfield which will fill up the utmost measure of human calamity". The play went through several iterations and rejections (most notably turned down by Charles Fleetwood, then owner-manager of the Theatre Royal at Drury Lane) before it was eventually published and performed over 20 years after its first iteration.
The neoclassical tragedy, which dramatises the love of Sultan Mahomet (Mehmed II) for Irene, a Christian slave, was first performed under the revised title Mahomet and Irene on the 6th February 1749. It ran for nine nights, with the playscript released just a few days later. Though it was never his most popular work (even his biographer James Boswell calling it ‘deficient in pathos’), it was one of the most commercially successful - only the Dictionary itself eclipsing the profits which arose from its production.
Scarce.
JOHNSON, Samuel
Irene: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane
London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1749
Small 8vo., late 19th century half calf, ruled in blind over green paper-covered boards, lettered and dated in gilt to backstrip; red speckled edges; pp. [xi], 2-86, [ii, ads]; a very good copy, lightly sunned in a strip to the lower board; the leather slightly rubbed at edges; some browning, spotting and offsetting to the endleaves; a couple of spots extending to the text block, mostly limited to the prelims; with a later portrait of Johnson tipped to the front fly-leaf. Provenance: Bookplate of Ejnar Christiansen to the front paste-down.
First edition of Johnson’s only play, reportedly printed in a run of just 1000 copies. This example complete with both the half title (priced One Shilling and Six-pence) and the advertising leaf to rear showing additional books printed by the publisher.
Samuel Johnson is one of the most notable men of letters in English history. A prolific writer, poet, editor and lexicographer, amongst many other accomplishments, his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language is still referred to today as one of the most comprehensive and influential dictionaries ever published. Irene was written relatively early in his career, when he was still working in his father’s bookshop. Johnson was just 17 years old at the time, and showed the first drafts of the manuscript to Gilbert Walmisley, then Registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court of Lichfield. Johnson “was making Irene suffer so much in the first part of the play that there would be nothing left for her to suffer in the later part", Walmisley noted, to which the playwright simply replied “I intend to put my heroine into the ecclesiastical court of Lichfield which will fill up the utmost measure of human calamity". The play went through several iterations and rejections (most notably turned down by Charles Fleetwood, then owner-manager of the Theatre Royal at Drury Lane) before it was eventually published and performed over 20 years after its first iteration.
The neoclassical tragedy, which dramatises the love of Sultan Mahomet (Mehmed II) for Irene, a Christian slave, was first performed under the revised title Mahomet and Irene on the 6th February 1749. It ran for nine nights, with the playscript released just a few days later. Though it was never his most popular work (even his biographer James Boswell calling it ‘deficient in pathos’), it was one of the most commercially successful - only the Dictionary itself eclipsing the profits which arose from its production.
Scarce.
JOHNSON, Samuel
Irene: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane
London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1749
Small 8vo., late 19th century half calf, ruled in blind over green paper-covered boards, lettered and dated in gilt to backstrip; red speckled edges; pp. [xi], 2-86, [ii, ads]; a very good copy, lightly sunned in a strip to the lower board; the leather slightly rubbed at edges; some browning, spotting and offsetting to the endleaves; a couple of spots extending to the text block, mostly limited to the prelims; with a later portrait of Johnson tipped to the front fly-leaf. Provenance: Bookplate of Ejnar Christiansen to the front paste-down.
First edition of Johnson’s only play, reportedly printed in a run of just 1000 copies. This example complete with both the half title (priced One Shilling and Six-pence) and the advertising leaf to rear showing additional books printed by the publisher.
Samuel Johnson is one of the most notable men of letters in English history. A prolific writer, poet, editor and lexicographer, amongst many other accomplishments, his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language is still referred to today as one of the most comprehensive and influential dictionaries ever published. Irene was written relatively early in his career, when he was still working in his father’s bookshop. Johnson was just 17 years old at the time, and showed the first drafts of the manuscript to Gilbert Walmisley, then Registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court of Lichfield. Johnson “was making Irene suffer so much in the first part of the play that there would be nothing left for her to suffer in the later part", Walmisley noted, to which the playwright simply replied “I intend to put my heroine into the ecclesiastical court of Lichfield which will fill up the utmost measure of human calamity". The play went through several iterations and rejections (most notably turned down by Charles Fleetwood, then owner-manager of the Theatre Royal at Drury Lane) before it was eventually published and performed over 20 years after its first iteration.
The neoclassical tragedy, which dramatises the love of Sultan Mahomet (Mehmed II) for Irene, a Christian slave, was first performed under the revised title Mahomet and Irene on the 6th February 1749. It ran for nine nights, with the playscript released just a few days later. Though it was never his most popular work (even his biographer James Boswell calling it ‘deficient in pathos’), it was one of the most commercially successful - only the Dictionary itself eclipsing the profits which arose from its production.
Scarce.