Beschreibung:

FIELDING, Henry. Tom Thumb. A Tragedy . London: J. Roberts, 1730.
FIELDING, Henry. Tom Thumb. A Tragedy . London: J. Roberts, 1730. 8° (196 x 118 mm). Half-title, advertisement leaf. Modern calf antique. ONE OF FOUR COPIES LOCATED FIRST EDITION , issue without “Written by Scriblerus Secundus” (no priority) on the title “of the most enduringly popular of Fielding’s dramatic productions” (Battestin), first performed at the Theatre in the Hay-Market. This hilarious burlesque of English heroic drama had an initial run of forty-one performances and was published in several editions, of which this first edition is exceedingly scarce. “Played by a petite actress, the diminutive hero of British legend struts the stage as champion of King Arthur, as well as the object of the affections of Queen Dollalolla and Princess Huncamunca and of the enmity of the marplot Lord Grizzle. HF’s dialogue echoes the bombast of more than forty tragedies from John Fletcher and Shakespeare to John Dryden and James Thomson” (Battestin, Fielding Companion , p. 187) VERY SCARCE : this is one of only four located copies, and the only one in private hands; the others are at the British Library, Bodleian Library and the Folger Library. According to auction records, the last copy sold was at Sotheby’s in 1947 as part of a sammelband. Cross III, p.291; ESTC T125610 (copies recorded at BL, Bod, Huntington, Harvard, Michigan, Princeton, Penn).