Collection of Four Publication: Der Eremit auf Formentera (Das Liebhabertheater vor dem Parlament + Die Weiber der Indianer an den Ufern des Oronocko, bound in) ; Neueste Theaterstücke; Die Strelitzen (J. M. Babo); Die Sonnen-Jungfrau (Bound in One)
Frankfurt, Berlin und Leipzig, Wien: J. B. Wallshaufser [Kummer], 1790/91. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 144, 83, 68, 112pp. Bound in textured brown paper-covered boards with black lettering on red label of spine. Additional label w/o descriptor at tail of spine. Frontispiece engraving by J. Kibler SC. A rare collection of 18th Century plays written by August von Kotzebue, with a play by contemporary playwright Joseph Marius Babo bound in. Variant OCLC records may suggest, due to varying pagination of Kotzebue titles printed in the same year, and the impossibility to identify the publishers of Kotzebue titles in 1790 and 1791, that printers and/or publishers produced dramas/scripts "on demand" for the booming German theater scene at that time.
1. Kotzebue, August von
a) Der Eremit auf Formentera. Ein Schauspiel mit Gesang in zwei Aufzügen. Frankfurt und Leipzig. 1790. 104pp. With address to Maria von Rosen and an address to the reader. Decorative headpiece. Bound in with continuous pagination, title page w/o publisher credited, and decorative headpiece on first page of play. Set to music by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, and Christian Ludwig Dieter. No OCLC reference to publisher in some 10+ entries. Also published with 76pp. pagination in Deutsche Schaubühne, Volume 2, issue 7.
b) Bound in "Das Liebhabertheater vor dem Parlament. Ein Nachspiel mit Gesang, aufgeführt auf dem Liebhabertheater zu Reval am Stiftungsfeste desselben". Set to music by Ernst Wilhelm Wolff, Kapellmeister in Weimar." Pages 105-139. Only one OCLC entry under this title at the Bavarian State Library, here as libretto only.
c) Bound in w/o title page, titled "Die Weiber der Indianer an den Ufern des Oronocko," with double ruling above title. An impressive, short essay, including a monolog of an American Indian woman at the Orinoco. Pages 140-144. NO separate OCLC entry.
[BOUND WITH]
2. Kotzebue. Series: Neueste Theaterstücke. Vorgestellt auf der k. k. National-Hofschaubühne im Jhr 1790. Berlin und Leipzig. 1790. 83pp. Engraved vignette. Die Indianer in England. Lustspiel in drey Aufzügen with each fifteen Auftriite. One OCLC entry at USC, bound with Babo's Strelitzen.
[BOUND WITH]
3. Joseph Maria Babo. Die Strelitzen. Ein heroisches Schauspiel in vier Aufzügen, nach einer wahren russischen Begebenheit. Wien. Published by J. B. Wallishaufser. (1790), 68pp. No date. Engraved title page vignette engraving. Decorative headpiece. Eleven scenes (Elf Auftritte).
[BOUND WITH]
4. Kotzebue. Die Sonnen-Jungfrau. Ein Schauspiel in fünf Aufzügen. Frankfurt und Leipzig. 1791. Publisher's vignette (woodcut) on title page. 112pp. With address to "Frau Präsidentin von der Wense, gebohrne von Ahlefeld in Celle" as introduction, two pages.
Text in German, Gothic script. Very light wear along edges of binding, spine though with some chipping at head and tail, back joint with small chip at top. Lightly starting at bottom of inside front, and at top and bottom of inside back cover. Collector's bookplate on front free endpaper. Babo's Strelitzen cut to fit, slightly cutting date of publication. Very good condition. Item #52719
August von Kotzebue (1761-1819) was a German dramatist and writer. At the age of sixteen August von Kotzebue acted alongside Goethe in the latter's play Die Geschwister (Siblings) when it premiered in Weimar in 1776. He was murdered in 1819 by Karl Ludwig Sand, a militant member of the Burschenschaften. The murder led to the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 issued by Prince Metternich, cracking down on the liberal press and restricting academic freedom in the states of the German Confederation.
"Hardly any modern playwright has been as influential on the course of European drams as August von Kotzebue. Author of over 230 theater pieces, Kotzebue was by far Germany's most popular and prolific dramatist during the period often referred to as the Goethezeit. Indeed, between 1791 and 1817 Kotzebue's plays enjoyed twice as many performances in Goethe's own theater in Weimar as those of Schiller, and over four times as many as Goethe's own dramas. On other large stages the statistics were similar. In fact, Benno von Wiese estimates that from 1795 to 1825 Kotzebue's plays made up about a quarter of the repertoire in all German theaters." (Karin Pendle)
Joseph Maria Babo (1756-1822) was a German dramatist known for his preference of historically based content, as in Goethe's "Göz von Berlichingen," or Shakespeare. He was appointed secretary of the Mannheim theater in 1774 and moved to Munich in 1774 to work as a writer and lecturer. Soon after he became an active and respected member of the Rumford Circle. His tragedy "Otto von Wittelsbach" was considered a masterpiece and was part of many theater repertoires into the 1840s.
Price: $1,250.00