Quarto. [8], 57pp, [1] Without terminal advertisement leaf. Later half-calf, marbled boards, ruled and lettered in gilt. Rubbed, chipping to spine, paper label with manuscript shelf-mark to upper board. Leaves browned, ticket of Dublin-based bookseller T. Connolly to FEP.

The first edition of the only published work of London-based watchmaker Henry Mestayer, of whom little is known. The tragedy, produced at John Rich's theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in February 1716, resulted in a dispute arising between Mestayer and literary editor Lewis Theobald (bap. 1688, d. 1744). Mestayer had given Theobald a preliminary version of the play only to then claim that Theobald had plagiarised his work. Theobald maintained in the preface to the play that he had 'created it anew: For even where the Original Matter is continued, I have brought it to Light, and drawn it as from a Chaos'. Mestayer subsequently published a version of the play (1716) ironically dedicated to Theobald.