Fielding's First Play
Love in Several Masques. A Comedy, as it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal ….
London: John Watts, 1728.
First edition. [viii], 82, [2] pp. 8vo. Fielding's First Play. Disbound. First three leaves detached. In a custom gray card folder Cross III, p. 290. Item #308036
First edition of the 20-year-old Fielding's first play and his second surviving publication. "Fielding's career as dramatist began auspiciously enough when, as an unknown author in his twentieth year, his first play, the comedy Love in Several Masques, was staged by Cibber at Drury Lane—an extraordinary favour due probably to the influence of Lady Mary, to whom Fielding dedicated the published version" (ODNB). In the Preface Fielding acknowledges the difficulty of competing for audiences with Gay's Beggar's Opera and Vanburgh's The Provok'd Husband. Love in Several Masques would run for only 4 nights, and Fielding would shortly depart for Holland to study, his next theatrical works not appearing until 1730.
Price: $750.00 Free International Delivery
