12mo. x, [2], 176pp. With an engraved frontispiece and an additional engraved title page. Contemporary calf, tooled in gilt and blind, marbled edges. Slightly rubbed, spine sunned. Marbled endpapers, recent bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst to FEP, lightly spotted.

Jane Bowdler (1743-1784), poet and essayist from a literary family, with her brother Thomas and sister Henrietta Maria editing the famously expurgated Family Shakespeare (London, 1807). This, her only work, was first published posthumously in 1786 and proved immensely popular, with 14 editions appearing throughout the eighteenth-century. The collection of verse includes 'Elegy on the death of Mr. Garrick', and essays including 'On Candour' and 'On the character of Curio'. The work is said to have captured the imagination of Queen Charlotte, who apparently read it three times.