The Ambitious Step-Mother. A Tragedy.

92, (4) pp. - (Bound with) II: Cibber, [Colley]. The Non-Juror. A Comedy. London [i.e., The Hague], printed for T[homas] J[ohnson] & are sold by the Booksellers of London & Westminster, 1718. 110, (2) pp. - (Bound with) III: Dryden, [John]. All for Love: or, The World Well Lost. A Tragedy. Written in Imitation of Sakespear's [!] Stile. [The Hague], printed for T. Johnson, 1720. 101, (1) pp., final blank leaf. - (Bound with) IV: Banks, John. The Unhappy Favourite: or, The Earl of Essex. A Tragedy. London [i.e., The Hague], printed for the Company [of booksellers; Thomas Johnson], [1711 or 1730?]. 85, (3) pp. - Contemporary full calf with gilt-stamped morocco spine label ("Tragedy") and pretty, florally gilt spine. All edges red. Marbled endpapers. 8vo. Pretty sammelband of four English plays (three tragedies and one comedy) of the Restoration Era. - I: Early edition of the first work by Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718), first performed in 1700 and published in 1702. "The imprint is false; printed at the Hague by Thomas Johnson. With a final advertisement leaf headed: 'English plays, neatly & correctly printed, . & sold by T. Johnson, bookseller in the Hague'" (OCLC). - II: One of several editions in the year of the first publication. Cibber's Whig-inspired version of Moli re's "Tartuffe" (with a caustic foreword by Nicholas Rowe) was dedicated to King George I, who rewarded the author with 200 guineas and made him Poet Laureate in 1730. - III: Later edition of Dryden's tragedy in blank verse (first published in 1678), written in imitation of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" and probably still his most frequently performed play. - IV: Later edition of Banks's first dramatic success, "The Unhappy Favourite", a tragedy in blank verse first shown in 1682. John Dryden contributed the Prologue and Epilogue. - Corners and spine-ends bumped, otherwise fine.