c1875 Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare. The Plays of Shakespeare.

Description

Illustrated, Leather Binding

Volumes I - III, complete. The three volumes are seperated into Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. William Shakespeare, d.1616, was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Charles Cowden Clarke, 1787 – 1877, and Mary Cowden Clarke, 1809 – 1898, were English authors and Shakespearian scholars. At first, whilst having published several articles, Charles became a publisher. After the business eventually failed, he took to writing reviews and articles, and later lecturing, especially on Chaucer and Shakespeare. As a lecturer, Charles lasted twenty years, and as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography tells us, “He prepared his lectures meticulously and delivered them with clarity and humour, both stimulating and charming his audiences. He dealt with a wide range of authors and topics, including Shakespeare, English poetry, and European novelists. His recitations from his chosen authors were widely admired and were said to be as accomplished as those given by Dickens.” The Cowden Clarke’s had many literary friends, including Keats, Shelley, Coleridge and Leigh Hunt. Mary Cowden Clarke, as well as being a poet, author and Shakespearian scholar, was an actress. She collaborated with her husband on several important Shakespeare texts. Henry Courtney Selous, 1803 - 1890, was an English painter, illustrator and lithographer. He was the son of a Flemish portrait and miniature painter, and a pupil of John Martin who was an important and influential English painter of the 19th century. He entered the Royal Academy in 1818.