Lacking Gimcrack

[beamjockey]

Why is it that, although Thomas Shadwell's play The Virtuoso was first produced 335 years ago, no free copy appears to be available on the Web?

I am curious to read it-- the virtuosi are an intriguing band of enthusiasts about whom I have learned only recently-- but I will have to locate a library that holds it.

Google Books has scanned various editions, but none is available in entirety.

At least one POD-shark company seems to have an edition, which suggests that a public-domain version is lying around somewhere. But I haven't found it.

(The existence of the Print-On-Demand version complicates the matter of paying money for a decent used copy. One would want to select carefully to avoid paying for an OCR'ed horror.)

Comments

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

There aren't any editions that are old enough to be in the public domain but new enough to be scannable, probably.

If you do buy a copy, buy the University of Nebraska Regents Restoration Drama edition, which has reasonably helpful footnotes.