First edition of this rare play by the actor-playwright J. H. Amherst (1776-1851), "a skilled crafter of spectacular melodramas of all varieties" (Holder, p. 131), from the library of Albert M. Cohn, collector and bibliographer of George Cruickshank, with his armorial bookplate. An online search shows that there is no copy at the British Library. Amherst wrote a number of these spectaculars, including The Battle of Waterloo (1824) and The Burmese War: A Grand Naval and Military Melo-Drama (1826), the latter cashing in on the interest generated by an "exotic" conflict that added considerable territories to the burgeoning empire. In 1838 he travelled to the United States as director of Cook's Equestrian Company and "after a moderately successful career he fell victim to a complication of diseases" and died impoverished in a Philadelphia almshouse, his burial undertaken "by the actors' order of friendship" (Wilson & Fiske, p. 66). This was the first production staged by the new owners of