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Killigrew, Thomas (1612-1683) Comedies and Tragedies.
London: Printed [by John Macock] for Henry Herringman, 1664.
First edition, folio, regular paper copy with fine engraved portrait by Faithorne after Sheppard of the author at his desk, with his faithful dog in the foreground, and a portrait of King Charles II in the background; bound in full deluxe crushed red morocco richly tooled in gilt by Bedford; portrait expertly remargined; ex libris Samuel Ashton Thompson-Yates (1843-1903) with his engraved emblematic bookplate dated 1894 inside the front board; aeg., 11 1/8 x 7 1/2 in.
Killigrew was a theatre manager and playwright in the Restoration period of Charles II. A dissolute cavalier figure at court, he began his theatrical career as a child, working as an extra player at the Red Bull Theatre in exchange for free admission. Killigrew was at court with John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Rochester (1647-1680), famous libertine who lost his life at the age of thirty-three to syphilis, alcholism, and complications from other sexually transmitted infections. In his Diary, Samuel Pepys notes, on 17 February 1669, "Among the rest of the King's company, there was that worthy fellow my lord of Rochester, and Tom Killigrew, whose mirth and raillery offended the former so much, that he did give Tom Killigrew a box on the ear in the King's presence, which do much give offence to the people here at Court, to see how cheap the King makes himself." (https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1669/02/17/)
