A Pioneering Eighteenth Century Actress.
READE, Charles (author). Hugh THOMSON (illustrator). Peg Woffington. London George Allen. 1899

8vo.; publisher’s deepest greenish-blue/black cloth lavishly and decoratively stamped in gilt to spine and upper cover with an intricate design featuring a semé of butterflies, with an elaborate portrait cartouche, a laurel wreath panel surrounding florid lettering in gilt, and a pair of cherubs holding the classic theatre masks “Comedy” and “Tragedy”, with spine prettily gilt, all edges gilt, and deepest green/black endpapers; pp. [viii], ix-li, [lii] + 297 + [ii]; with pictorial title, frontispiece (with original fine tissue), and delightful historiated initials together with full-, and half-page illustrations after engravings by Hugh Thomson; a fine and exceptional copy, both externally and internally, without ownership marks or inscriptions and, apparently, unread.

First edition illustrated thus, published by George Allen in a stunning gilded binding in imitation of Macmillan’s famous  “Cranford Series”.

Margaret “Peg” Woffington (c1714-1760) who inspired this novel, was a trailblazing Irish actress and socialite of the early eighteenth century, lauded for her beauty, and later, her talent.  Born into poverty, in Dublin, she was discovered by a famous tightrope walker, Madame Violante, and at the age of ten made her stage debut as Polly Peachum in a juvenile production of John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera”, which was a springboard to other more classical roles. She moved to London in 1740, invited by John Rich of the Covent Garden Theatre, where she was known for her comic talent and for playing male roles dressed in male clothing, which was highly unusual for the period.  She went on to become the first female member of the Beefsteak Club, which was a prestigious all-male dining society, even becoming its president in 1750.

Her notoriety is of long standing, with 21 portraits of her in the National Portrait Gallery. She was portrayed by Anna Neagle in the 1935 film “Peg of Old Drury”.