Isaac Reed

He was articled to a solicitor, and eventually set up as a conveyancer at Staple Inn, where he had a large practice.

[1] His major work was the Biographia dramatica (2 vols., 1782), a set of biographies of dramatists and a descriptive dictionary of their plays.

The original work by Baker had been based on Gerard Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691), Giles Jacob's Poetical Register (1719), Thomas Whincop's List of all the Dramatic Authors (printed with his tragedy of Scanderbeg, 1747) and the manuscripts of Thomas Coxeter.

Reed's Notitia dramatica (British Library, Add MSS 25390–25392), supplementary to the Biographia, was never published.

[1] He also revised Robert Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays (12 vols., 1780); and re-edited Samuel Johnson and George Steevens's edition (1773) of Shakespeare.