£45
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, 12mo, pp. 190, [2]. Original pale green boards backed in ecru cloth. Spotted and browned, sometimes heavily, running dampmark to bottom third of textblock. Booklabel and ownership inscription of William Winans to endpapers
The first American printing of two of Scott's plays. The first, The Doom of Devorgoil, was written around 1817, but never performed, as, per the preface, 'the manner in which the mimic goblins of Devorgoil are intermixed with the supernatural machinery, was found to be objectionable, and the production had other faults, which rendered it unfit for representation'. Appearing first in Britain in April 1830, the volume was poorly-received, with the critic of the Edinburgh Literary Journal referring to them as 'two plays that would have damned most men' and asking 'why were they not put into the fire long ago?'
