Manuscript, Meluchat Shaul by poet Yosef HaEfrati of Troplowitz. [Central Europe, ca. 1830s-1840s].

Neat Ashkenazic cursive and square script. Copying of the historical play Meluchat Shaul – the most famous work of Yosef HaEfrati of Troplowitz (Opawica; 1770-1804), a Hebrew poet and playwright who lived in the first generation of the Haskalah literary movement. The play is a dramatic rendition of Saul's jealousy of David, and David's righteousness and love for Jonathan, as told in the First Book of Samuel. Literary critics consider the work to be the first original Hebrew play in modern times. Literary historian Yaakov Zinberg writes in Toldot Sifrut Yisrael: "It was a great loss for Hebrew literature that Yosef HaEfrati's first drama was also his swan song: with the untimely death of the young poet [at the age of 34], modern Hebrew literature buried one of its most seemly hopes".

The play was first printed in Vienna, 1794, and was reprinted throughout the 19th century in a dozen editions, some with an added Yiddish translation. The present manuscript follows the pagination of the first edition, Vienna 1794, and also includes the poems and introductions printed at the beginning of the volume (without the title page and list of characters). The copying is interrupted in the middle of the sixth act, and lacks the conclusion of the play. At the end of the manuscript (p. 87a) and penultimate page (p. 89b), the copyist adds an inscription (in Yiddish) on the 22 Hebrew letters. On the last page, the copyist adds an inscription on the birth of his son Mordechai in 1848.

Handwritten dedication at beginning of first leaf (over paper repair): "I send this book as a gift to my dear uncle R. Moshe Bleicher". On front endpaper, German inscriptions on contractual issues, dated 1839.

90 leaves. Approx. 19 cm. Partly on blue paper. Fair-good condition. Stains and wear. Tears and creases. Marginal open tears to first leaves, repaired with paper. Uneven trimming. Color edges. Bookplate. New binding and endpapers.