?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
Shirley, James (1596-1666) The Example. As it was Presented by her Majesties Servants at the private House in Drury-Lane.
London: Printed by John Norton for Andrew Crooke & William Cooke, 1637.
First edition, quarto, with the prologue leaf signed *2, originally printed as I4 bound in that position as the final leaf; some toning and dustiness to title, inner gutter reinforced on verso; dramatis personae list added in ink on verso of title; signed by W.E. Burton on title page, sold in his sale as lot 1608 in 1860; bound in 19th century half morocco, repaired tear to gutter margin of D4; 6 3/4 x 4 7/8 in.
Shirley's The Example has been consistently lauded as one his finest comedies and one of the best of its period. For more, see Nathan Coggan, "James Shirley's The Example (1634): Some Reconsiderations," Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, Vol. 17 No. 2 (Spring 1977), pp. 317-31; [and] David Stevens, "The Stagecraft of James Shirley." Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 29 No. 4 (December 1977), pp. 493-516; see p. 495.
STC 22442; Greg II 521A; Pforzheimer 926; ESTC S102993; rare at auction.
