Venice Preserv'd: Or, A Plot Discover'd
by Thomas Otway
- Used
- Good
- Condition
- Good
- Seller
-
Menifee, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Printed for G. Hamilton and J. Balfour, 1755-01-01. Pamphlet. Good. 1755 'Printed for G. Hamilton and J. Balfour' (Edinburgh, Scotland), 4 x 6 1/4 inches tall, removed from a larger collection of English plays but separately paginated, complete and tightly bound, lacking wraps or covers. Embossed stamp from the library at Wigan, Greater Manchester, England to title page and three other interior pages. 1926 presentation plate to library and stamp to verso of title page. Light stain to lower fore margin of title page and successive eight leaves. Otherwise, a very good, early imprint of an important Restoration drama. Reference: ESTC No. T121750. Scarce, with the English Short Title Catalog recording only three institutions holding a copy: the National Library of Scotland, the British Library and the Niedersachsische Staats und Universitatsbibliothek, in Gottingen, Germany. ~MMM~ Thomas Otway (1652-1685) was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for this work, 'Venice Preserv'd,' which has been called the most significant tragedy of the English stage in the 1680s. It was first staged in 1682, with Thomas Betterton as Jaffeir and Elizabeth Barry as Belvidera. The play was soon printed and enjoyed many revivals through to the 1830s. 'Venice Preserv'd' contains a fair number of political parallels. The character of Senator Antonio is a reference to Shaftesbury (1621-1683), and the grand plot resembles the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, among others, most notably the so-called 'Spanish Conspiracy' against Venice of 1618. The oceanic city of Venice had been used as a stand-in for London before, but the subtext most noticeable to contemporaries was the parallel with the Exclusion Crisis (1679-1681). Therefore, one reason for the play's outstanding initial success was its political allusiveness. 'Venice Preserv'd' also has several feminist issues. As the play was written in the Restoration period, when the legal protections for women were few, the emotional heart of the play is the vulnerability of women. The play won instant success. It was translated into almost every modern European language, and even Dryden said of it: 'Nature is there, which is the greatest beauty.
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Details
- Seller
- Flamingo Books (US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- MMM-0341-453
- Title
- Venice Preserv'd: Or, A Plot Discover'd
- Author
- Thomas Otway
- Format/Binding
- Pamphlet
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Printed for G. Hamilton and J. Balfour
- Date Published
- 1755-01-01
Terms of Sale
Flamingo Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Flamingo Books
Biblio member since 2011
Menifee, California
About Flamingo Books
Flamingo Books specializes in scarce and unusual nonfiction books and ephemera, with an emphasis on the natural sciences, religion, law, history and antiquarian titles.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- G
- Good describes the average used and worn book that has all pages or leaves present. Any defects must be noted. (as defined by AB...
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Plate
- Full page illustration or photograph. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e.,...
- Fair
- is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...