Subscriber’s Copy
HOME, John.
Douglas: a Tragedy. Edinburgh, George Reid & Co., 1798.
8vo, pp. xii, 124, [4], with engraved frontispiece portrait and 5 engraved plates; some slight foxing in places, light offsetting from plates, but a very good copy; bound in contemporary tree calf, spine gilt in compartments with gilt red and green morocco lettering-pieces, edges speckled blue, marbled endpapers; lightly rubbed and a little bumped at extremities; early ownership inscription ‘Lady Abercromby | Forglen House’ and old shelfmark to front free endpaper verso.
First illustrated edition, a handsome subscriber’s copy, of this lavish production which attracted more than three hundred subscriptions, mainly Scottish, some forty years after this celebrated play was first staged.
Third among the subscribers is Sir George Abercromby, 4th Baronet, who acquired Forglen House through his marriage to Lady Jane Abercromby (née Ogilvy), to whom this copy belonged.
A romantic tragedy, Douglas was based on a Scottish ballad, and first performed in Edinburgh in 1756, ‘where it caused violent controversy and protests from those who believed it improper for a minister of the church to write for the stage. Hume and Adam Smith supported it; it was a great success, and frequently revived’ (OCEL).
ESTC N365.