ROACH'S BRITISH THEATRE [30 Plays in 8 Volumes]. Adapted for Theatrical Representation; As performed at the Theatres-Royal, Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden. Regulated from the Prompt-Books, By Permission of the Managers

London: Printed by and for J. Roach at the Britannia Printing Office, Drury Lane. Roach's Edition. Hardcover. Good Plus.. 16mo. 8 volumes containing 30 plays with separate title-page and pagination, 28 with an engraved frontispiece, 28 printed by J. Roach at either Russell-Court/Russel-Court or Woburn-Street with "Roach's Edition" at head of title-page, 1 published in Edinburgh by Oliver & Boyd, and 1 printed in Dublin "for the Booksellers." Full tree-calf, gilt-stamped maroon leather spine labels. Contemporary ink signature to front blank in each volume, first four volumes with ink date of 1814. Covers scuffed and rubbed, some tanning, foxing and offsetting to text, some text pages and plates trimmed at lower edge, vol. 3 hinge between plate and title-page of "Isabella" cracked though tight and holding. Overall, a very good, scarce set of early Regency theatricals. Contents include: Thomas Otway - Venice Preserved, n.d.; The Rev. Henry Bate - The Flitch of Bacon, 1808; T. Knight - The Honest Thieves, 1797; Arthur Murphy - The Citizen, n.d.; George Lillo - George Barnwell, n.d. [1813?]; Mrs. Centlivre - A Bold Stroke for a Wife, 1806; Charles Coffey - The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphosed, 1808; Sir John Vanbrugh - Lovers' Quarrels, or Like Master, Like Man, 1806; [???] Artaxerxes. An English Opera, n.d. (without frontispiece); [Thomas Southerne] - Isabella or The Fatal Marriage, [1811]; Kane O'Hara - Midas. An English Burletta, n.d. [1802]; David Garrick - Bon Ton or High Life Above the Stairs, 1811; Shakespeare - Othello, n.d [1803]; Isaac Bickerstaff - Love in a Village, 1807; Mrs. Brooke - Rosina, n.d. [1816]; Henry Fielding - Tom Thumb, A Burlesque Tragedy, 1811; [???] The Tailors. A Tragedy for Warm Weather, n.d. [frontispiece dated 1805]; Mr. Bickerstaff - The Hypocrite, A Comedy Altered from C. Cibber, 1811; Beaumont & Fletcher - Rule A Wife & Have A Wife, 1808; Arthur Murphy - Three Weeks After Marriage, 1811; George Colman - The Jealous Wife, 1807; G. Colman & David Garrick - The Clandestine Marriage, n.d. [without frontispiece]; A. Murphy - The Way to Keep Him, 1807; R.B. Sheridan - A Trip to Scarborough, 1811; [Sheridan] - The School for Scandal, Dublin, 1800; Sheridan - The Rivals, 1811; Samuel Foote - The Mayor of Garratt, 1809; Edward Young - The Revenge, n.d. [frontispiece dated 1805]; A. Murphy - All In The Wrong, 1808; George Farquhar - The Beaux Stratagem, 1811. James (or John) Roach was a bookseller and compiler who kept a shop in Drury Lane near the Theatre Royal. His bookshop on Drury Lane stocked everything from children's anthologies to salacious prints, and he is credited with producing one of the first part-publications - a collection of poetry published over two years. He published an infamous pamphlet entitled Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies (a notorious catalogue of courtesans and their various specialties) which landed him in prison for several months. However, with his new found notoriety, he released a selection of theatre books which sold very well.