All for Love: or, the World Well Lost. A Tragedy, as is acted at the Theatre-Royal; and written in Imitation of Shakespeare's Stile.

Dryden, John

click image to zoom

(London): Henry Herringman, 1678. Octavo. (x), 78, (i)pp. First edition. The last play that Dryden wrote for the King's Company, All for Love is an imitation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. It was written in blank verse and focuses on the tragic last hours of the two star-crossed lovers' lives. With a calligraphed bookplate on the first free endpaper stating that the book was presented to the author Louis Auchincloss in 1935 as the English Essay Prize at Groton School. A prolific writer who balanced both literary and legal careers for most of his life, Auchincloss wrote numerous essays and at least a book each year while working as a lawyer. Bound in brown cloth, gilt-titled on the spine, and with the Groton School seal in gilt on the front cover. Corners slightly rubbed, and a tear to the margin of one page that minimally affects the text has been skillfully repaired, else a very good association copy of Dryden's best-known play. (Item ID: 23087)

(MacDonald 82a).