Comedies and Tragedies
Contains digital mediaDetails
Type of record: Book
Title: Comedies and Tragedies
Classmark: BC Lt quarto BEA (Charles II copy)
Creator(s): Beaumont, Francis (1584-1616); Fletcher, John (1579-1625)
Additional creator(s): Shirley, James (1596-1666) (Editor); Lowin, John (1576-1659) (Other); Marshall, William (1617-1650) (Engraver); Taylor, Joseph (1586?-1653?) (Other); Charles king of England (1630-1685) (Former owner); Pirie, Robert S (1934-2015) (Former owner); Drescher, Arthur Bruno (1895-1986) (Associated name); Trafford, Lionel James (1855-1900) (Former owner); Bernard Quaritch Ltd (Bookseller); Peter Harrington London (Bookseller)
Publisher: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, at the three Pidgeons, and Humphrey Moseley, at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard
Publication city: London
Date(s): 1647
Language: English
Size and medium: [52], 75, 143, 166 pages, [1], 71, 172, 92, 50 (i.e. 52 ), 28, 25-48 pages
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/717961
Printed items catalogue: https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44LEE_INST:VU1&docid=alma991012732999705181
Collection group(s): English Literature
Description
First edition.
The following pages are wrongly numbered as indicated in round brackets: 26 [Sig. E1] (28), 80 [Sig. Kk4] (08), 90 [Sig. Mmm2] (92), 100-101 [Sig. Nnn2-3] (80-81), 6 [Sig. Aaaa3] (2), 34 [Sig. Eeee1] (26), 17 [Sig. Ccccc1] (25), 65 [Sig. Iiiii1] (63), 117 [Sig. Ppppp3] (107), 147 [Sig. Sssss6] (143), 156 [Sig. Ttttt4] (56), 83 [Sig. Llllll2] (85), and 52 [Sig. Ggggggg4] (50).
Printed by at least ?8 printers including William Wilson, Edward Griffin, Thomas Warren, Susan Islip, Ruth Raworth --cf. Pforzheimer catalogue.
Includes all the plays not hitherto printed, except the Wild-goose chase, the manuscript of which was later recovered and printed in 1652.
"The Epistle dedicatorie" is signed by John Lowin, Joseph Taylor and eight others; "To the reader" is signed by Ja. Shirley, who is usually regarded as the editor.
Portrait of Fletcher by W. Marshall, and with J. Berkenhead in small type.
Indexed in: ESTC,
Indexed in: Wing (2nd ed),
Indexed in: W W Greg, A bibliography of the English printed drama to the Restoration,
Indexed in: Carl H. Pforzheimer Library, English literature, 1475-1700,
Additional description
The Charles II as Prince of Wales copy
Features
Bindings
Leeds University Library copy at Brotherton Collection Lt quarto BEA [copy 2: Charles II copy]: contemporary dark brown morocco for Charles II as Prince of Wales, gold tooled ruled borders and frame with gold tooled floral cornerpieces, spine with six raised bands, divided into nine compartments by double gold tooled rules, gold tooled flower-head in each compartment, gold tooled supralibros (three ostrich feathers emerging from a coronet with motto "Ich dien") on covers, gilt fore-edges, early 19th-century marbled endpapers of the Schrottel Pattern.
Provenance
Leeds University Library copy at Brotherton Collection Lt quarto BEA [copy 2: Charles II copy]. Gold tooled supralibros (three ostrich feathers emerging from a coronet with motto "Ich dien") on the covers of the Prince of Wales, the future Charles II [British Armorial Bindings, Charles II, King of England, stamp 05 (https://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/stamps/ICHA2001_s05)]. Twentieth-century pictorial bookplate on front pastedown: Robert S. Pirie [i.e. Robert S. Pirie (1934-2015), American lawyer, investment banker, and book collector, who purchased the volume from Bernard Quaritch Ltd, London in 1960]. Quaritch had purchased the volume from Sotheby's sale, 28 January 1935, lot 235, and supplied the portrait and 5 missing preliminary leaves (A1, A3, e2, f1, g2). Stamped and counter-signed invoice on rear pastedown: Arthur B. Drescher, restorer of fine prints and drawings, London, 4 August 1960 [i.e. Arthur Bruno Drescher (1895-1986)]. The Collection of Robert S. Pirie's books and
manuscripts was sold at Sotheby's New York on 2-4 December 2015 and this volume, lot 65, purchased by Peter Harrington London and then sold to Leeds University Library in November 2020.
Leeds University Library copy at Brotherton Collection Lt quarto BEA [copy 1]. Title page and four of the preliminary leaves repaired, and missing words supplied in ink. Title Wild Goos chase supplied in MS. at foot of Catalogue of all the comedies and tragedies contained in this booke. Bookplate of Lionel J. Trafford on front pastedown [i.e. Lionel James Trafford (1855-1900), soldier and artist].
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.