LEE, Nathaniel.

£250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Dramatick Works. Fourth collected edition of the complete works, originally published in 1694. It includes all 13 plays, among which the successful The Rival Queens (1677), still regarded as one of Lee's best tragedies, and Oedipus (1678-9), his first collaboration with John Dryden.Lee played a "major role in the development of English drama... In at least two respects, he led the other playwrights of his day: he anticipated Dryden in restoring blank verse to its favoured status in serious drama, and he started the transition from admirable heroes and happy endings, typical of serious plays of the 1660s, to the more pathetic, vulnerable characters and suicidal or homicidal conclusions that marked so many tragedies during the following two decades" (ODNB).

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