Author: VANBRUGH (Sir John):
Title: Plays, written by Sir John Vanbrugh. In Two Volume. Volume the First. Containing. The Relapse; Or, Virtue in Danger. The Provok'd Wife, with a new Scene. AEsop, in two Parts. The False Friend. [AND] Volume the Second. Containing, The Confederacy. The Mistake. The Country House. A Journey to London. The Provok'd Husband.
Description: London: Printed for C. Hitch and L. Hawes...[et al], 1759. 2 volumes. 12mo, 162 x 96 mms., pp. [3] 4 - 369 [370 Epilogue]; [7] 8 - 340 [341 - 342, 343 - 344 Songs], engraved portrait of Vanbrugh as frontispiece, contemporary polished calf, gilt border on covers, gilt spines, black morocco titling labels, olive green numbering labels, spine gilt in compartments; corners worn, spines rubbed with some loss of gilt a good to very good set. The first collected edition of plays by Sir John Vanbrugh (1664 - 1726) appeared in 1719. This 1759 edition is the first to contain The Country House. "Vanbrugh did nothing by halves. He had the gift of presenting complexity to others as simple, but not simplistic; even to his architectural clients he used clear, non-technical language. His two original comedies are brilliant, not only because they are both entertaining and serious, but because they present contrived situations and ridiculous characters as credible, crafted and often metrical speech as natural. His apparently casual style, praised by contemporaries such as Cibber and Pope, is the same as that of all but his earliest letters" (Kerry Downes).

Keywords: Drama theatre literature


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