Thomas Middleton | A Game at Chesse, 1628, von der Lasa-Blass copy

Thomas Middleton

A game at chesse. London, 1628

4to (164 x 116 mm). Collation: π² B–K⁴: 38 leaves, roman type, 37 lines plus headline, cut close (with date of publication on title cropped), worming at inner margin (repaired in places)

EXCEEDINGLY RARE COPY OF MIDDLETON'S JACOBEAN SATIRICAL DRAMA, FROM THE LIBRARY OF LEGENDARY NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN CHESS MASTER BARON VON DER LASA. Rare Book Hub lists only one auction record for this edition, offered in 1956.

Middleton's play was perhaps the most notorious theatrical success of the day. It was a thinly veiled satire on contemporary political events in the dying days of the reign of James VI/I. Middleton, like so many other writers from Cessolis to Lewis Carroll and beyond, found chess to be a rich source for symbolism and used the game as an analogy for society. The play, which was performed by the King's Men (best-known, of course, for their association with Shakespeare), was suppressed after an unprecedented nine-day run.

PROVENANCE:

Baron von der Lasa (1818–1899), armorial bookplate and inventory number (No. 437), autograph bibliographical note tipped onto front free endpaper, and inkstamp to outer margin of title; Dr Robert Blass, Zurich, inkstamp to front free endpaper (beneath von der Lasa's bibliographical note), not in the 1992 Christie's sale of the Blass library

LITERATURE:

USTC 3011904 (5 copies); ESTC S110039; STC 17885