Douglas: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden

Edinburgh: Printed for G. Hamilton & J. Balfour, W. Gray & W. Peter, 1757. Soft Cover. Very Good. First Edinburgh edition (ESTC N388), published simultaneously with the London edition. Engraved illustrated mounted inside front wrapper. First two pages and last page lightly spotted and creased, small internal tear to epilogue page. 1757 Soft Cover. 74, [2] pp. 8 1/8 x 5 1/2. Plain olive wrappers, not contemporary. It appears likely this was trimmed from a quarto edition, as the margin along the binding edge is considerably smaller than the fore edge margin. This production was Edmund Kean's acting debut, and the play was admired by David Hume ("the true theatric genius of Shakespeare and Otway, refined from the unhappy barbarism of the one and licentiousness of the other") and Thomas Gray (the author the author "seemed to have retrieved the true language of the stage, which has been lost for these hundred years"). It was first performed the year before it was published anonymously by Scottish minister John Home. It is a tragedy in blank verse, and has been referenced in several important literary works (Mansfield Park, The Mill on the Floss, Vanity Fair, Nicholas Nickleby, etc.). (Inventory #: 2305603)