WILDE, Oscar The Duchess of Padua. A Tragedy of the Sixteenth Century

8vo., red card wraps with onlaid paper title label printed in red and black; tied and glued at backstrip; outer edges untrimmed; pp. [viii], 9-187, [iii]; with title page printed in red and black; internally fine, and apparently unread, with many quires entirely unopened; the odd crease; a couple of pages worked loose, including the ffep and occasional gathering; discrete Cleveland bookseller sticker to the final page; the book now housed in a custom-made purple silk flapcase and matching slipcase; the outer shell in quarter red morocco with five raised bands, lettered and decorated in gilt to spine (a little rubbing). Provenance: Discrete label of J.O. Edwards to front free endpaper, likely the prominent, highly regarded private collector of rare books who built a world-class collection of Oscar Wilde first editions, manuscripts, and presentation copies during his lifetime. 

An early pirated edition of Wilde’s historical play, and an English translation taken from the text of Dr. Max Meyerfeld's German translation, Die Herzogin von Padua, which appeared in Berlin the previous year. First published in 1883, this present edition states ‘Private Limited Issue reserved exclusively for the Subscribers’, and was reportedly printed in a run of just 100 copies on handmade paper. The first licensed edition in English (by Methuen) was not published until 1908. 

Wilde had been strongly influenced by Victor Hugo’s Lucrezia Borgia (1833) and Angelo, Tyrant of Padua (1835) - two historical plays set in Italy - when, in the 1880s, he decided to write a similar play of his own. The five-act result was written for the actress Mary Anderson in early 1883, while Wilde was in Paris, and in a note to Anderson at the time, he claimed that he had “in you a faith which is as flawless as it is fervent I doubt not for a moment that I can and will write for you a play which, created for you and inspired by you, shall give you the glory of a Rachel, and may yield me the fame of a Hugo."  Unfortunately, subsequent negotiations with Anderson’s stepfather/manager broke down, and the play was never produced. It was not until 1889 when it was rediscovered by the American actor Lawrence Barrett that it was staged in New York, opening at the Broadway Theatre in 1891 under the title Guido Ferranti. It has rarely been revived or studied. 

This book previously in the collection of Clive Hirschhorn, the prominent author, film historian, and former journalist who served as theatre critic for The Sunday Express from 1966 to 1995. Hirschhorn is noted for conducting what is considered to be Judy Garland’s final interview, and throughout his career he interviewed such stars as Gene Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Jack Nicholson, Tennessee Williams, and numerous others. 

SKU: 1800246