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WOFFINGTON, PEG; MOLLOY, J. FITZGERALD Life and Adventures of Peg Woffington, TheBound by A.J. Cox of Chicago His Copy Extra-Illustrated with 119 Portraits and Views [WOFFINGTON, Peg]. MOLLOY, J. Fitzgerald. The Life and Adventures of Peg Woffington. With Pictures of the Period in Which She Lived. London: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 1884. First edition. Two octavo volumes (7 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches; 184 x 124 mm.). xiv, 293, [1, blank]; viii, 284 pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait in Volume I. Extra-illustrated with 119 mostly engraved portraits and views (including one mounted photograph), most inlaid to size, some portraits with an additional leaf of text about the person inlaid opposite on a separate sheet. The additional plates are set in opposite the text which they illustrate. The portraits are of literary figures and actors. Late nineteenth-century full olive green crushed levant morocco bound by A.J. Cox of Chicago in the style of Roger De Coverly. Covers delicately panelled in gilt with a floral design within a gilt fillet and gilt-dotted border, spine five raised bands lettered in gilt in two compartments, the remaining decoratively tooled in gilt in a floral design, board edges decoratively tooled in gilt, turn-ins (highly decorative), marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others rough trimmed. Spines very slightly and uniformly faded to brown. Armorial bookplate of binder A.J. Cox on front verso of front free endpaper of each volume. A fine set. Actress Peg Woffington (?1718û1760), born poor in Dublin, 'was recruited by Madame Violante for a Lilliputian performance of The Beggar’s Opera in Dublin, then London, 1730-1. On returning, Woffington was introduced to the Smock Alley management by Charles Coffey and soon found regular work there. In 1739 she scored a sensational success as Sir Harry Wildair in Farquhar’s The Constant Couple. After an affair with a man called Taaffe she travelled with Coffey to London in 1740. There she persuaded Christopher Rich to cast her as Silvia in The Recruiting Officer, and followed that with a repeat of her earlier triumph in the ‘breeches’ part. During 1742-5 she visited Dublin with Garrick and was made President of the Irish Beefsteak Club by Thomas Sheridan, who took her to Quilca and, reportedly converted her to the Church of Ireland. Her subsequent affair with Garrick and acrimonious rivalry with Kitty Clive are part of English theatrical legend. Her beauty and acting were said to be mesmeric. Charles Reade gave a romantic account of her in his novel Peg Woffington (1853), which however tidies up her morals' (The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature).
Offered for US$ 1750.00 by: David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB) - Book number: 00576