Details
THOMAS HOLCROFT
The Road to Ruin. London: J. Debrett, 1792. 8vo. (19.8 x 11.5cm) (L3 with repaired tear through text), brown morocco gilt by T. Alcott, c. 1950, top edge gilt.
FIRST EDITION of Holcroft's comedy which was so successful that Debrett published 11 editions in one year; several Dublin piracies, a Cork edition, and a New York edition also appeared in 1792. Marshall observes that "the action of one long and exciting scene [in Act II] takes place in 'the parlour of the Tennis Court' on the occasion of 'the great match' between 'the famous Frenchman and Will the marker'. The Frenchman in this instance was perhaps the celebrated Masson, who came and played in England ...." (Annals of Tennis, p. 98). Lance St. John Butler regarded it as possibly "the last substantial literary use of tennis" in English in a tradition going back to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, c. 1380 ("Tennis in English Literature", in The Royal Game, ed. L. St. J. Butler and P.J. Wordie, 1989, p. 68).
The Road to Ruin. London: J. Debrett, 1792. 8vo. (19.8 x 11.5cm) (L3 with repaired tear through text), brown morocco gilt by T. Alcott, c. 1950, top edge gilt.
FIRST EDITION of Holcroft's comedy which was so successful that Debrett published 11 editions in one year; several Dublin piracies, a Cork edition, and a New York edition also appeared in 1792. Marshall observes that "the action of one long and exciting scene [in Act II] takes place in 'the parlour of the Tennis Court' on the occasion of 'the great match' between 'the famous Frenchman and Will the marker'. The Frenchman in this instance was perhaps the celebrated Masson, who came and played in England ...." (Annals of Tennis, p. 98). Lance St. John Butler regarded it as possibly "the last substantial literary use of tennis" in English in a tradition going back to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, c. 1380 ("Tennis in English Literature", in The Royal Game, ed. L. St. J. Butler and P.J. Wordie, 1989, p. 68).
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