The Lamplighter: A Farce

First edition. 12mo. 45, [1] pp. Original blue-grey printed wrappers. First edition in dramatic form. Now first printed from a Manuscript in the Forster Collection at the South Kensington Museum.

No 62 of 250 numbered copies. Title hand written on lightly sunned spine, else a fine copy.

A play written circa 1838 as an "unfortunate little farce" at the request of English actor and impressario, William C. Macready, but withdrawn whilst still in rehearsal. Plot was eventually reworked into the tale The Lamplighter's Story and published in the 'Pic-Nic Papers,' by Baudry's European Library, Paris, in 1841. An uncommon item.

[Eckel, p. 162; Podeschi B80]