Waldimar. A Tragedy, in Five Acts.
New York: privately printed, 1834.
Price: $275.00
About the item
124, [2], 6 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original forest green diapered cloth lettered in gilt on upper cover and spine. Minor staining to six or seven leaves, a little wear at head of spine, f.f.e.p. removed, otherwise very good. Sabin 2736.
Item #315860
A copy in the original cloth of this "not published" American verse tragedy, with the title role written for Charles Kean. "It was first produced at the Park Theatre, November 1, 1831, and Ireland remarks that 'having many passages of rare merit,' it deserved more than the four nights' representation. Kean brought it to Philadelphia, however, and it was simply another instance of a fine play being absorbed by a star whose main interest lay elsewhere. Waldimar is laid in Thessalonica at the close of the fourth century during the reign of Theodosius the Great. The massacre is a historical fact, used before by Brockden Brown, but the characters and the plot are entirely fictitious. It is quite a distinguished play…" (Quinn, A History of the American Drama (1923), p 254).
