About this Item
145 x 92 mm. (5 3/4 x 3 5/8"). 7 p.l., 284 pp., [10] leaves. Lacking initial blank. Contemporary calf, covers with blind-ruled border, rebacked to style, flat spine divided into panels by double blind rules. Front pastedown with engraved bookplate of Robert Pirie. Pforzheimer 482; STC 13358; ESTC S104070. Corners slightly bumped, extremities a little rubbed, but the very neatly restored binding entirely solid. Title page with small branching wormtrail, affecting following leaf to a lesser degree, intermittent minor browning, occasional paper flaws or small stains, but an excellent copy--as you'd expect with the Pirie provenance--the text quite fresh and clean. This is an excellent copy, from an important collection, of Thomas Heywood's charming literary assemblage. A denizen of the London taverns, playwright and translator Heywood (ca. 1573-1641) was always either writing or reading, and his love of ancient literature is reflected in this miscellaneous collection of verse and translation. "Pleasant Dialogues and Dramma's" includes 15 dialogues from Lucian, two dialogues from Erasmus, two excerpts from Ovid, brief translations from other authors (including Jacob Cats, Beza, Jean Tixier de Ravisi and others), as well as poems and excerpts of plays by Heywood himself. Our author was a versatile actor and dramatist, belonging to a group of players who were retained to put on private performances for noblemen, a group that eventually became the queen's own troupe. He also wrote pageants for the mayor of London, and he claimed to have written 220 plays (he is generally recognized as the most prolific dramatist after Lope de Vega). Although a much smaller number has survived, they include historical dramas and tales of both high and low life. The present copy has a distinguished provenance. The New York lawyer Robert S. Pirie (1934-2015) amassed the finest library of 16th and 17th century English literature in private hands during his lifetime. His collection was sold in more than 1,000 lots at Sotheby's in 2015.
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