Prose on Several Occasions; Accompanied by Some Pieces in Verse

London: Printed for T. A. Cadel..., 1787. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. 3 volumes. 12mo, 181 x 107 mms., pp. [ix], vi - xvi [xvii - xxiii Contents, xxiv blank], 266; [viii], 318; [xiii], iv - xx [xxiii - xxiv txt], 290, including half-title in each volume, engraved portrait (by J. Hall after Gainsborough) in volume 1, contemporary calf, rebacked in lighter calf, red morocco labels; corners and fore-edges slightly worn, but a very good set. Colman (1732 - 1794) gives an amusing account of himself in volume one (pp. 19 - 31) in an essay that appeared in the periodical, The Genius, beginning with comments on his "remarkable low stature; a sort of diminutive plaything of Mother Nature"; he was about five feet tall in his stockings. He had an honourable and a successful career as playwright and theatre manager, probably the best theatre manager of the century. Prose on Several Occasions was extensively reviewed, being noticed in now fewer than seven periodicals. The Monthly Review concluded its comments saying that the "Public...will receive the same degree of pleasure, they have so frequently derived from the production of Mr. Colman's pen, while the author will add a new sprig of laurel to the wreath, with which his brows have long been decorated." Alston, III, 381.