Know Your Own Mind: A Comedy, in Five Acts, Printed From the Acting Copy, with Remarks, Biographical and Critical, By D--G

John Cumberland, 1826-01-01. Pamphlet. Acceptable. No date (but these Cumberland editions were published 1823-1831), John Cumberland (London) 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches tall, with no wraps or covers, removed from a larger volume of English plays but separately paginated, with its own title page and engraved frontispiece after R. Cruikshank of a scene from Act IV of the comedy, 72 pp. This extract is split between pages 60 and 61, with a trace amount of foxing to frontispiece, title page and the final page. But otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked. Includes an introduction by 'G--D,' English writer George Daniel (1789-1864), with notes on costumes, cast of characters from the Theatre Royal production, stage directions, exits and entrances and relative positions of the characters. ~MMM~ Arthur Murphy (1727-1805), also known by the pseudonym Charles Ranger, was an Irish writer. A barrister, journalist, actor, and playwright, he edited 'Gray Inn Journal' between 1752 and 1754. As Henry Thrale's oldest and dearest friend, he introduced Samuel Johnson to the Thrales in January 1765, and is best known for three biographies: his 1792 'An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson,' his 1762 'Fielding's Works' and his 1801 'Life of David Garrick.' Murphy authored more than a dozen plays between 1756 and 1783. 'Know Your Own Mind' was likely first staged in 1777. As a lawyer, Murphy successfully represented an appeal to the House of Lords in 1774 against the perpetual possession of copyright held by book dealers on famous works such as Paradise Lost for 'a Bottle and a fowl.' The subsequent principle of non-perpetuity became known as 'Murphy's Law' before the same adage came to the contemporary meaning of personal misfortune. In the same case, he is thought to have coined the legal term 'wilful misconstruction.