Lot 120: [CONGREVE, WILLIAM.]

Manuscript of "Love and duty reconcil'd A Play"

written in a single clear, ungainly hand, possibly by the anonymous author, c.90 pages, 4to, contemporary marbled boards, [first half of eighteenth century], somewhat damp-stained, first gathering detached, lacking pages 9 and 10, hinges cracked, lacking spine, rubbed

This anonymous and apparently unrecorded verse-drama has no connection with Congreve except that the author has appropriated the sub-title of his novel Incognita. Its characters include Sir James Lovesworth, Lord Alcidor, Theanor, Sir Charles, Colonel Dauntless, Wildish, Aspalia, Zelinda and Ardelia. It may conceivably relate to an amateur country-house production of around the 1730s or '40s.