![[Item #45585] Bunker-Hill; or, the death of General Warren: an Historic Tragedy, in Five Acts...as Performed at the Theatres in America, for Fourteen Nights, with Unbounded Applause. IRISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE, John BURK, Daly.](https://lornebair.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/45585.jpg?auto=webp&v=1569363266)
Bunker-Hill; or, the death of General Warren: an Historic Tragedy, in Five Acts...as Performed at the Theatres in America, for Fourteen Nights, with Unbounded Applause
New York: by D. Longworth, at the Dramatic Repository, Shakspeare-Gallery, 1817. Third edition. 12mo (15cm); modern decorative wrappers; 44pp. Complete and good, with minimal aging to text.
According to a note by Goodspeed, this third edition (posthumous) was the first to include Samuel Woodworth's "Ode for the Fourth March, 1817" on pp.43-44. Burk, a transplanted Irishman, premiered this work at Boston's Haymarket Theatre in 1798. Though undistinguished as literature, the play captured the anti-British zeitgeist, and Burk's reputation and fortune were secured by it. Reputation, alas, failed to save Burk from dying badly: in 1808, while drinking in a Virginia tavern, Burk made injudicious remarks at table regarding the character of the French; a nearby citizen of France, overhearing, challenged Burk to a duel in which the playwright perished the next morning. A brief but diverting account of Burk's career prior to emigration is provided by Wegelin (Early American Plays, 1904) in his citation for this work. HILL (American Plays) 35. WEGELIN p.24.
Price: $250.00
