Boston: Printed and Sold by William Spotswood, 1795. First American edition. 12mo (171 x 108 mm). Spotting throughout, toning, occasional penciled notations; disbound.

The Padlock is a two-act opera which debuted at London's Drury Lane Theatre in 1768, today most infamous for marking the first appearance of a performer in blackface on an American stage. This performer was most likely Snelling Powell, whose brother Charles Stuart Powell was a theatrical manager who in 1796 opened the Haymarket Theater in Boston. Ira Aldridge, in addition to being the first Black actor to play the role of Othello on an American stage, was also the first to play Mungo; he is said to have rewritten his lines and tailored his performance to excite the antislavery sympathies of his crowds, closing each performance with lectures on the evils of slavery. Aldridge would later perform Othello and The Padlock as double-bills both to showcase his talent. Following the Civil War the play largely fell out of favor in the United States, with only occasional performances in later years which often saw the controversial role of Mungo swapped out.