With extra engraved frontispiece
The Comedies, Tragedies, and Operas...Now first Collected together, and Corrected from the Originals.
London: Tonson, Thomas Bennet and Richard Wellington, 1701.
Price: $1,000.00
About the item
First Folio edition. Engraved portrait frontispiece by Edelinck after Keller, and extra-illustrated with later full-page frontispiece for the second volume. [6], 618; 558 pp. 2 vols. Folio (336 x 196 mm.). With extra engraved frontispiece. Bound in modern half brown morocco over brown cloth boards, spines lettered in gilt, t.e.g. Brief marginal repairs to both title-pages, folding portrait backed, first few leaves in first volume partially disbound, pp 119/120 with tear from corner, some stray marks and minor toning throughout, upper cover to first volume mostly detached, upper joint to second volume with flaking, corners rubbed, head and tail of spine of both volumes rubbed, bookplates of Julius Joleson and Paul Buchet. MacDonald 107 a i.
Item #237330
Dryden's plays were first collected as early as 1682 and many times subsequent, though these early editions were simply 4to editions of his plays bound together with a new general title, and erratic in terms of quality and completeness. This noble 1701 Tonson folio is not only the the first in this format, but the first to aim at comprehensiveness and accuracy.
