Collection contains 860 single plays plus 480 bound volumes, including 37 Shakespeare quartos. The 1600 edition of The Merchant of Venice has notes by both Lewis Theobald and George Steevens, the 18th century editors of Shakespeare and their hand writing can be seen in some of the other plays. Other Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists are well represented, 30 plays by Dryden, many Restoration first editions. 19th century authors also represented, the most moderrn play being Stephen Phillips' The Sin of David, 1904. Illustrated as plates I - IV of AR
Item Provenance
Collection of the first Marquess of Bute, retained in the family and bought by the Nation from Major Michael Crichton-Stuart. 100 of them belonged to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu mother of the Countess of Bute and include her lively scribbled comments