An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear, Compared with the Greek and French Dramatic Poets. with Some Remarks upon the Misrepresentation of Mons. de Voltaire. [William Shakespeare]

288 pp. 8vo. Full leather, gilt decorative borders on front and rear boards, marbled endpapers. An assessment of the work of William Shakespeare by Elizabeth Robinson Montagu, who maintained a popular London salon among whose patrons were Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Horace Walpole. Montagu references Samuel Johnson's commentary on Shakespeare favorably in her introduction, and also condemns the criticism of Voltaire, who famously loathed Shakespeare's work and made no attempt to hide it (he wrote, for example, "Hamlet is a gross and barbarous piece, and would never be borne by the lowest rabble in France or Italy." [Preface to Semiramis, 1748]). Contents include: Introduction; On Dramatic Poetry; On the Historical Drama; The First Part of Henry IV; The Second Part of Henry IV; On the Praeternatural Beings; The Tragedy of Macbeth; Upon the Cinna of Corneille; Upon the Death of Julius Caesar.