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

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Shadwell&n=200000237&tn=Virtuoso&x=75&y=19

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

See how many of those are new, not used, books. These booksellers are offering new POD editions from Gale or from mysterious unspecified "publishers." Maybe Gale editions aren't as bad as the execrable products of General Books, but I'm not risking fifteen or twenty bucks to find out.

Were I interested in buying one, I would follow icecreamempress's advice and spring for the University of Nebraska Press editions.

I would like to read the play, but my interest is not up to the $13.50 level. It is barely up to the "grumpily complain about the lack of free copies on your blog" level.

There's also the magic of Interlibrary Loan if I am interested enough. Yesterday I ILL'ed an account of a novel isotope-separation device penned by the founder of Fermilab.