MACREADY, William Charles. – William WORDWSWORTH. The Poems. London: Edward Moxon, 1849. New Edition, signed and inscribed by actor W.C. Macready with a mounted envelope containing a lock of hair from the Macready family mounted on the front endpaper, 8vo (240 x 139mm.) Engraved portrait frontispiece of Wordsworth. (Toning, occasional ink annotation.) Original brown blind-stamped cloth (extremities rubbed, minor staining). Note: the actor William Charles Macready was a serious and significant figure in mid-Victorian theatre. Celebrated for his Shakespearean roles that he toured around America, he was also known for returning ‘King Lear’ to a tragedy rather than using the sentimental Nahum Tate ending that was popular at the time. He was good friends with Charles Dickens. They were godfathers to each other’s children and in 1839 Dickens dedicated ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ to Macready. Provenance: Catherine Macready (gift inscribed to from her father verso frontispiece).