Lucius Junius Brutus, Father of His Country: A Tragedy

London: Printed for W. Feales, 1734 Illustrated with an etched frontispiece by Gerard Vandergucht. From The Dramatick Works of Mr. Nathaniel Lee. Bound in brown paper wrappers, title handwritten in black ink on the spine, marbled edges. Good, with minor toning to the spine and front wrapper, chip to the spine tail, spine cracked at title page and pages 46/47, bright and clean pages. Overall, a clean and presentable copy. This copy of Lucius Junius Brutus comes from the first volume of The Dramatick Works of Mr. Nathaniel Lee, complete in three volumes, published by W. Feales in 1734. In addition to Lucius Junius Brutus, the first volume includes Œdipus, Theodosius; or, The force of love, and The Princess of Cleve. Notably, The Dramatick Works are the first and only collected edition of Nathaniel Lee's plays. Originally published in 1681 by Richard Tonson, Lucius Junius Brutus is a Restoration tragedy that was first produced at the Duke of York's Theater in 1680. After Charles II lifted the ban on theater that was in place during the Interregnum in the early 1660s, Charles II and his brother James II (then the Duke of York) sponsored their own theater troupes, known as the King's Company and Duke's Company respectively, who together held a virtual monopoly on British Restoration theater. Luicius Junius Brutus tells the story of the overthrow of the last Roman monarchy to establish the Roman Republic. Specifically, it follows Lucius Junius Brutus as he leads the revolt against his uncle, the king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, after Sextus Tarquinius, the king's youngest son, raped Lucretia, a noblewoman and Brutus' relative. Because of its political and specifically antimonarchical sentiment in the period of British Restoration, Lucius Junius Brutus was removed from the stage after only a few performances.. Soft Cover. Illus. by Vandergucht, Gerard. (Inventory #: NL002)