Adam first comes on the stage : manuscript harlequinade : [England], [ca. 1698].

Record ID: 
192829
Accession number: 
MA 4432
Credit: 
Gift of Julia P. Wightman, 1986.
Description: 
1 item 32.8 x 40.1 cm
Notes: 

Title from first line of text; date from annotation on the manuscript.
With text and illustrations on a folded sheet in four sections, each with two flaps to alter the illustration and continue the verses; with revisions to the verses; manuscript 32.8 x 40.1 cm unfolded; 10.7 x 16.5 folded.

Summary: 

Being a manuscript harlequinade in which Adam becomes Eve who becomes a mermaid; a lion becomes a winged monster who becomes an eagle and carries off a child; a man who escapes the eagle becomes a heart which then turns into a purse of gold and silver; the miser grows ill and turns into a skeleton.

Housed in: 
Blue cloth drop-spine box (23.2 cm)
Provenance: 
Purchased from Sotheby's London, December 1986, lot. 395.