Achilles. by GAY (Mr.[John]) - 1733

An Opera. As it is Perform’d at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. Written by the late Mr. Gay. With the Musick prefix’d to each Song. London: Printed for J. Watts at the Printing-Office in Wild-Court, near Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, 1733. Price One Shilling and Six Pence. Cr.8vo format, not watermarked; half-title present; two leaves integral advertisements at end, dated ‘February 28, 1733’, last page blank; pp.[viii]+68+[iii]+[i]; A⁴, B - E⁸, F⁴; stabbed and sewn through as issued; tipped into old, perhaps contemporary, blue wrappers, cut flush. Wrappers a trifle chipped and frayed; early signature on upper fore-corner of half-title; very slight staining to half-title and final page, possibly from contact with the wrappers; light embrowning to a couple of gatherings towards the end; second advertisement leaf with three small holes either caused by silverfish or an original paper flaw, and affecting one letter of text; otherwise a very nice copy. The probable first issue, priced on the half-title and title pages. There is another issue that doesn’t have the price. Gay’s last ballad-opera, written some five years after he originated the genre, and containing fifty-four songs. NCBEL, 2:498; not in the extensive Rothschild collection in either issue; Wise, Ashley Library, II, p.143, listing the priced issue. All books listed by Robert Temple are first editions unless otherwise stated.