Cloth
1694 · London
by Settle, E. [Elkanah]
London: Printed for A. Roper, and E. Wilkinson, at the Black-Boy in Fleetstreet, 1694. First edition. Cloth. Text block separated from binding, last leaf lacking, a few leaves closely cropped, some scattered foxing, soiling to edges, overall still a good copy. [8], 54 pp. Sm. 8vo. Lacking the final leaf, H4, with epilogue and advertisement. Epilogue provided in facsimile. Written in the 1680's but not produced until 1694, The Ambitious Slave was a tragedy of revenge, "... a morass of impenetrable intrigue, subplots and multiple conflicts of emotion tarted up with Settle's by then cliche oriental settings, heroic love, ambition, imprisonment, ghosts, madness and death," Don-John Dugas, Companion to Restoration Drama, p384. Wing S2654. ESTCR10530. CBEL II, 427. (Inventory #: 27224)