The Gamester | Page 4

by
the University of Michigan.
Charles H. Peake
University of Michigan

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The first edition of Moore's The Gamester appeared in 1753 shortly
after the opening of Garrick's performance of the play on February 7.
This edition is in many respects a good text; it has seemed desirable for
several reasons, however, to reprint this work from the 1756 edition of

_Poems, Fables, and Plays_ (often referred to as the "Collected
Works"). The 1756 text often corrects that of 1753 and is generally
superior to later printings; it contains passages and improved readings
not present in other editions; it aims at formal correctness, employing
classical scene division; as a "Works" edition it exhibits excellent
editorial and typographical treatment; it enjoys a superior general
readability advantageous to classroom use; and, finally, it contains
Moore's vindicatory preface, which, as far as an examination of
available copies shows, does not appear in other editions. Inasmuch as
the 1756 printing is somewhat late, standing between the fourth and
fifth editions of the play, a brief bibliographical account of The
Gamester is offered.
The play was printed separately many times in the eighteenth century.
The first edition, in the University of Michigan copy, bears the title:
THE / GAMESTER. / A / TRAGEDY. / As it is Acted at the /
_Theatre-Royal_ in _Drury-Lane_. / [rule] / ornament / [rule] /
_LONDON_: / Printed for R. FRANCKLIN, in _Russel-Street_, /
_Covent-Garden_; and Sold by R. DODSLEY, / in _Pall-Mall_.
M.DCC.LIII. / The anonymity of the titlepage is half-hearted, for the
dedication to Henry Pelham is signed "Edw. Moore." A prologue
written by Garrick, an epilogue, and the cast of the original
performance precede the eighty-four page text. Francklin and Dodsley
brought out a second edition in the same year and a fourth edition in
1755; presumably a third edition had been issued in the interim. In
1771 a fifth and a sixth edition appeared, and in 1776 another London
edition came out. In 1784 two more editions made an appearance, the
first printed for R. Butters (John H. Caskey, The Life and Works of
Edward Moore, Yale Studies in English, LXXV [New Haven, 1927], p.
174), the second printed for a group of four booksellers--Thomas
Davies, W. Nicoll, Samuel Bladon, and John Bew. The same
combination of booksellers, with W. Lowndes taking the place of
Davies, issued in 1789 an inferior reprinting of their 1784 text. The
editions of 1784 and 1789 are interesting because they identify by
inverted commas the cuts made in contemporary stage versions. Before
the end of the century three editions were printed outside London: two
Dublin imprints of 1763 and 1783, and an American imprint of 1791 by

Henry Taylor in Philadelphia.
In addition to these separate publications, The Gamester was included
in two collections of Moore's works. The 1756 edition has already been
noticed. THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF Mr. Edward Moore, as the
1788 titlepage describes the volume, was issued by the
Lowndes-Nicoll-Bladon-Bew group and was actually an assembled text
made up of the 1784 printing of The Gamester, the 1786 The Foundling,
and the 1788 Gil Blas.
The play was a favorite in many popular dramatic collections of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth century; it appeared in Bell's British
Theatre in 1776 and thereafter, in Mrs. Inchbald's The British Theatre
in 1808, in Dibdin's London Theatre in 1815, and in Cumberland's
British Theatre in 1826. According to Caskey and other sources the
play was thus reprinted more than a dozen times by the middle of the
nineteenth century. Since then it has declined in favor and has seldom
been reprinted, even in textbook anthologies covering representative
literature of the period.
The 1756 text of the play and the plates from the Davies-Nicoll-
Bladon-Bew 1784 edition have been reproduced through the
cooperation of the University of Michigan Library from copies of these
editions in its possession. Because of its lack of significance, the
dedication to Henry Pelham has not been reprinted.
Philip R. Wikelund
University of Michigan
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
THE GAMESTER.
A TRAGEDY.
As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane.

[Illustration: MRS SIDDONS and MR KEMBLE as _Mr. & Mrs.
Beverley Act 5. Sc. 4_. Bev. _O! for a few short Moments to tell you
how my Heart bleeds for you._]

PREFACE.
It having been objected to this tragedy, that its language is prose, and
its catastrophe too horrible, I shall entreat the reader's patience for a
minute, that I may say a word or two to these objections.
The play of the GAMESTER was intended to be a natural picture of
that kind of life, of which all men are judges; and as it struck at a vice
so universally prevailing, it was