INSCRIBED BY CHARLES KEAN - Shakespeare’s Play of The Winter’s Tale, Arranged for Representation at The Princess’s Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes....as First Performed on Monday, April 28th, 1856.

Charles Kean’s revised version, inscribed by the actor and theatre manager himself, and found complete here with its rare glazed, printed wrappers as first issued. Kean has inscribed the play to his ‘attached friend’, Mrs Heath - perhaps the widowed mother of Caroline Heath, a member of Kean’s company who played many major Shakespearian roles for Kean including Ophelia, Cordelia, Juliet, and in this production of A Winter’s Tale, performed as Florizel, son of Polixenes. An excellent copy of the play which Kean altered significantly, notably in Shakespeare’s choice of locale for the play from Bohemia (with its famously non-existent sea-coast), changing it to Bithynia. Additionally Kean has added extensive historical notes.

DESCRIPTION: Large octavo (21x13.5cm), bound in printed white glazed wrappers, a little discoloured but a most unusual survival thus. Kean has inscribed the title page: ‘To Mrs Heath from her attached friend Charles Kean’. A little spotting to the text. Collates complete: x, pp11-105 [1]. Stab sewn, beautifully clean text.