Contents: A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER. A Farce, in Two Acts by Thomas Morton. With Prefatory Remarks. The only Edition existing which is faithfully marked with the Stage Business, and Stage Directions, as it is performed at the Theatres Royal. By W. Oxberry, Comedian. (Oxberry's Edition). Bound with: GLENWAR, THE SCOTTISH BANDIT. A Tale of Former Times. Interpersed with Original Poetry. By An Etonian. Bound with: EVADNE: OR, THE STATUE. A Tragedy By R. Sheil, Esq. With Prefatory Remarks. The only Edition existing which is faithfully marked with the Stage Business, and Stage Directions, as it is performed at the Theatres Royal. By W. Oxberry, Comedian. (Oxberry's Edition)

12mo. 4.5 x 7 inches. 48 pp.; [5] -23 pp.; [viii] + 62 + [ii] pp. Bound in original half calf with blind stamped borders, over marbled boards, spine in compartments with gilt bands and contrasting maroon morocco title label, gilt. Slight wear to extremities and traces of foxing, but otherwise a very good copy. Armourial bookplate. Illustrated by hand coloured etching as frontispiece and by diagram in text. Thomas Morton (1764-1838), playwright, wrote some twenty five plays for the English theatre. 1792-1828, several of these being popular successes, including A Roland for an Oliver. Richard Lalor Sheil (1791-1851), was an Irish politician and paywright, whose first play was transferred form Dublin to Covent Garden in 1816. Sheil was an MP for four separate English and Irish constituencies, 1830-51 and also served as Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Master of the MInt and as a diplomat. The play Evadne, first performed and published in 1819, is said to have been based on 'The Traytor' by James Shirley (1596-1666). Both plays were reissued several times throughout the nineteenth century. William Oxberry(1784-1824) was an actor and playwright, first appearing in Covent Garden in 1807. He edited The New English Drama, twenty two volumes of plays, 1818-24. The author of Glenwar has not been identified; several editions were published including the US, in the 1820s. This copy is from the library assembled by Richard Monckton-Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (1809-85), an important patron of literature, and by his son, of Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, and previously the Earl of Crewe (1858-1945), Liberal politician, who held a wide variety of offices in his career, including those of Colonial and India Secretary ART / LITERATURE DRAMA LIT. FICTION DRAMA 19TH CENTURY ART / LITERATURE Koch, A Bibliographical Checklist of Early Nineteenth-Century Gothic Bluebooks.…