Poetical miscellany

Thesaurus dramaticus

      London 1724. - Thesaurus dramaticus. Containing all the celebrated passages, soliloquies, similes, descriptions, and other poetical beauties in the body of English plays, antient and modern, digested under proper topics; with the names of the plays, and their authors, referr'd to in the margin. London: printed by Sam. Aris, for Thomas Butler, 1724. (2)x, 240; (2)358 pp. + an engraved frontispiece by Vander Gucht in each volume. Two vols., 12mo, contemporary panelled calf (some wear, one front cover detached).First edition. An anthology of poetical passages from about 175 plays; arranged alphabetically by subject, from "absence" to "youth." Shakespeare and Dryden are the dominant figures here, but there are many selections from lesser writers as well, even as unfamiliar as Mrs. Jane Wiseman, whose only play, Antiochus the Great, appeared in 1702. Further editions of this collection were published in 1737, 1756, and 1777, as The Beauties of the Stage; whether or not these reprints were updated we have not determined. Last leaf of Vol. II a bit wrinkled; aside from the loose cover, a very good copy. CBEL II, 355.