1788 The Dramatick Writings of Will. Shakspere

Description

Fine Binding, Illustrated, Leather Binding, Very Scarce

The very scarce complete twenty volume set. A large paper edition, uniformly bound in full morocco.

In 1785, John Bell began to issue the 36 separate plays of Shakespeare individually, collecting them here in twenty volumes in 1788 as the 'Dramatick writings of Will. Shakspere'. The set is scarcely found complete.

The first two volumes here are a remarkably comprehensive and broad 'Prolegomena' to Shakespeare's works, and offer interesting analysis of Shakespeare from an era where many of his plays were often interpreted differently, both in their production and in their critical reception.

The subsequent eighteen volumes consist of the plays themselves, along with notes from Samuel Johnson and George Stevens, a highlight of this particular edition.

Volumes I & II: Prolegomena To The Dramatick Writings of Will. Shakespeare. Nine plates to volume I, and eight to volume II.

Volume III: The Tempest and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Four plates.

Volume IV: The Merry Wives of Windsor and Much Ado About Nothing. Four plates.

Volume V: Measure for Measure and A Comedy of Errors. Four plates.

Volume VI: Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Four plates.

Volume VII: The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It. Four plates.

Volume VIII: The Taming of The Shrew and All's Well That End's Well. Four plates.

Volume IX: Twelfth Night and Winter's Tale. Four plates.

Volume X: Macbeth and King John. Four plates.

Volume XI: King Richard The Second and King Henry IV. Part I. Four plates. 

Volume XII: King Henry IV. Part II and King Henry V. Four plates.

Volume XIII: King Henry VI and King Henry VI. Part II. Four plates.

Volume XIV: King Henry VI. Part III and King Richard III. Five plates.

Volume XV: King Henry VIII and Coriolanus. Four plates.

Volume XVI: Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. Five plates.

Volume XVII: Timon of Athens and King Lear. Five plates.

Volume XVIII: Hamlet and Titus Andronicus. Four plates.

Volume XIX: Othello and Troilus and Cressida. Four plates.

Volume XX: Cymbeline and Othello. Four plates.

Collated, complete.

ESTC T65177. The plays are individually paginated, with separate signatures, and individual title pages for each play.

Half titles to vols II-XVI, XIX and XX.

With the bookplate of Benjafield, Bury St. Edmunds, to each front pastedown.

[pagination continued: 131, 82, 151, 71; 108, 50, 145, 130; 103, 83, 152, 164; 160, 200, 108, 24; 144, 91, 143, 156; 148, 82, 130, 124pp]