[BRITISH THEATER]. Great Britain. Anno Regni Georgii III. Regis Magnae Britanniae, Franciae, & Hiberniae, Septimo [ -Vicesimo Septimo] ... 12 pamphlets, various paginations. Folio, ca. 305 x 195 mm., printed in Roman and English black-letter. Disbound, housed in a full-cloth box with leather label on spine. London: Printed by Mark Baskett, [later Charles Eyre and William Strahan], 1767 [-1787].

A collection of twelve scarce Parliamentary acts from the reign of George III, all of considerable interest to historians of British theater. This set is mainly concerned with the licensing and funding of provincial theaters, and contains early references to theaters in a number of towns and villages that were fairly remote from London at this time. Collections of this type, culled as it is from the vast print-run of eighteenth-century Parliamentary acts, would be nearly impossible to put together today.

Contents of the collection:

"An Act for extending the Royalty of the City if Edinburgh over certain adjoining Lands [...] and to enable His Majesty to grant Letters Patent for establishing a Theatre in the City of Edinburgh, or Suburbs thereof." 5ff. 1767.

"An Act to enable his Majesty to license a Playhouse in the City of Bath." 2ff. 1768.

"An Act for licensing a Playhouse within the City of Norwich." 2ff. 1768.

"An Act for enabling his Majesty to license a Playhouse in the City of York; an in the Town and County of the Town of Kingston upon Hull." 2ff. 1769.

"An Act to enable His Majesty to license a Playhouse in the Town of Liverpoole (sic), in the County Palatine of Lancaster." 2ff. 1771.

"An Act for enabling His Majesty to license a Playhouse in the Town of Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster." 2ff. 1775.

"An Act for better securing a Fund, belonging to certain Persons of the Theatre Royal in Drury-lane, applicable to charitable Uses; and for other Purposes therein mentioned." 4ff. 1776.

"An act for securing a Fund, belonging to certain persons of the Theatre Royal, Covent-garden, applicable to charitable Uses; and for other Purposes." 4ff. 1776.

"An act to enable His Majesty to license a Theatre in the City of Chester." 2ff. 1777.

"An Act to enable His Majesty to license a Theatre in the City of Bristol." 2ff. 1778.

"An Act to enable His Majesty to license a Playhouse within the Town and Port of Margate, in the Isle of Thanet, in the County of Kent, under certain Restrictions therein limited." 2ff. 1786.

"An Act to enable His Majesty to license a Playhouse in the Town and County of the Town of Newcastle upon Tyne." 2ff. 1787.

All are lightly browned, with sewing holes stabbed through the pages near the spine. The largest is slightly chipped around the edges. Otherwise these pamphlets are in uniformly excellent condition.