Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

Together in 7 volumes, 8vo (197 x 127 mm). Portrait frontispiece by Van de Gucht in the first six volumes, engraved plate of the Stratford monument in the Life (p.37), and 43 plates (one at the beginning of each play); 2pp. publisher's ad at end of vol.7. (Lacking general title-page in vol.1; vol.7 lacking frontispiece, A8 [including general title] a-d8 e1 A-B8 C-C7; frontispiece and general title in vol.2 detached, offsetting from plates to title-pages, corner dampstaining to frontispieces, general titles and some text in vols. 4-6.) Contemporary paneled calf with blind-tooled sides (vol.1 is supplied to this set, spine mostly perished and lacking upper cover, others rebacked in morocco, extremities rubbed, spine ends a bit worn; the seventh volume is also supplied to this set as usual and is in a similar paneled calf, crudely rebacked in cloth). Provenance: Herbert Jacob of St. Stephens in Kent (armorial bookplate on versos of frontispieces or title-pages); Inner Temple Library (bookplates, stamps on general titles, gilt stamps on spines); College of New Jersey Library (bookplate in vol.7; pencil notations on flyleaves).

FIRST OCTAVO EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS, COMPLETE WITH THE RARE SEVENTH VOLUME. A mixed issue set: Vol.1 is a second issue (Ford's second edition); Vols.2-6 are FIRST ISSUES, conforming to Ford's pagination and text errors. This edition of Tonson's, according to Jaggard, ranks second to the First Folio: "In importance and interest, this edition ranks second perhaps to the editio princeps. It is the first manual text, the first to present a biography of the poet, the first to bear an editor's name, the first to possess illustrations, and the first of the endless army of editions in octavo" (Jaggard).

Commissioned by the publisher Jacob Tonson, Rowe’s edition modernized Shakespeare’s spelling and punctuation, divided plays into acts and scenes, and included dramatis personae lists—innovations that shaped later editorial practice. It was also prefaced by Some Account of the Life &c. of Mr. William Shakespear, often regarded as the first biographical sketch of the playwright, drawing upon information gathered by the actor Thomas Betterton. In 1710, a seventh volume appeared under the title The Works of Mr. William Shakespear. Volume the Seventh: Containing Venus & Adonis, Tarquin & Lucrece, and His Miscellany Poems, produced by the publisher Edmund Curll and likely edited by Charles Gildon. Although not authorized by Tonson or Rowe, this supplement was marketed to accompany purchasers of the six-volume set and is now known as one of the earliest separate printings of Shakespeare’s narrative poems and minor verse. ESTC T138294, T138298; Jaggard, p.497; Ford, pp.9-10.