Il Funerale. Commedia. Originale Inglese, Del Cavaliero Riccardo Steele

Londra Pressa Ch. Chrichley, 1742. FIRST EDITION. 12mo (in 6s), 185 x 110 mms., pp. [iv], 100, with the contemporary notation under Steele 's name "da P. Rolli," i. e. the librettist and renowned Italian poet Paolo Rolli (1687-1765). Lacks engraveed frontispiece, edges of leaves a bit ragged and other very slight wear. BOUND WITH: ANTONI (Sebastiano): La Congiura di Bruto, Figiuolo di Cesare. Tragedia del Signor Deglie Antoni. In Vicenza, Con Licenza de Skuperiori, 1733. 8vo, 185 x 110 mms. pp. viii, 80 2 volumes in 1, bound in contemporary quarter vellum, with leather corners, marbled boards (very worn); spine chipped and slightly defective but a good copy. The inscription under Steele's name almost certainly refers to Paolo Rolli (1687-1765) and identifies the translator of Steele's play The Funeral; or Grief A La Mode 1701) for the first time. Rolli translated other work by Steele, e. g. The Conscious Lovers and The Lying Lover, and is known to have worked with Chrichley on other endeavours (for which see ESTC). Rollie was invited to England in 1715 by the Earl of Pembroke or the Earl of Stair and remained in England until. He is well-known for his translation of Paradise Lost (1729 - 1735) and was secretary to the Royal Society of Music. ESTC N18617 locates copies at Bodleian, Oxford Worcester College Library, and NLS; in North America, copies at Texas Austin, Yale, and McMaster. For La Congiura di Bruto, OCLC locates copies in BL (2) and a 1784 imprint in Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.