The Belle’s Stratagem, a Comedy

Book Description

London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1782. [iv], 84pp., 8vo. Handsome copy in red morocco-backed cloth, spine gilt-lettered, by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. First London edition of a play first acted in 1780; this authorized version was preceded by two Dublin piracies in 1781. Mrs. Cowley was both impulsive and commercial: she wrote her first play in response to a dare from her husband after she claimed she could write lines at least as good as those in the play they were watching. That play and its successors were so successful that for this play she is said to have received 1200 guineas. According to J. E. Norton, in “Some Uncollected Authors XVI,” The Book Collector, Spring 1958, “the heroine, who assumes a totally different character to suit different occasions, in order thereby to captivate her lover, was for long a favourite part with actresses. It was taken by Ellen Terry as late as 1883.”

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