Fashionable Levities. A Comedy. In Five Acts. Second edition.

MACNALLY, Leonard.

Verlag: Printed for G.G.J and J. Robinson. 1785, 1785

Beschreibung

[8], 90, [2]pp, half-title. 8vo. Recent calf backed marbled boards, green, spine label. ESTC N5066. In the play the character of Mr Ordeal praises a woman for her natural looks, remarking that 'her real face shall never be concealed under a counterfeit; some ladies coin complexions, and should be punished for high treason in defacing beauty'. 'Appropriately, given the legal language in the play, it was written by the Dublin barrister Leonard Macnally. He trod a fine line between comedy and the law, writing at least 12 plays mainly satires and comedies as well as comic operas, and writing both a well-respected book on the law of evidence and a handbook on the role of the Justice of the Peace in Ireland. He is regarded as having helped define the standard of 'beyond reasonable doubt' at criminal trials. Yet Macnally was also a founding member of the Society of United Irishmen in the 1790s set up to achieve parliamentary reform, but which became an Irish republican organisation and defended other members in court, his clients including Wolfe Tone (also a former barrister). After his death in 1820, it was discovered that he had, in fact, been a government informant, spying on the United Irishmen for Britain. For the last 26 years of his life, he had been receiving payment for his services.' Ref: Dr Nell Darby. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 91860

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Fashionable Levities. A Comedy. In Five Acts...

Verlag: Printed for G.G.J and J. Robinson. 1785

Erscheinungsdatum: 1785

Einband: Hardcover