SHAKESPEARE\'S PLAYS*1623 1st FOLIO*LOVELY FACSIMILE*SIGNED/LTD EDITION*LEATHER*
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SHAKESPEARE\'S PLAYS*1623 1st FOLIO*LOVELY FACSIMILE*SIGNED/LTD EDITION*LEATHER*:
$1181.18
SHAKESPEARES COMEDIES, HISTORIES AND TRAGEDIES BEING A REPRODUCTION IN FACSIMILE OF
THE FIRST FOLIO EDITION 1623
FROM THE CHATWORTH COPY IN THE POSSESSION OF THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K. G.
SIDNEY LEE, EDITOR
OXFORD
1902
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DESCRIPTION: Hardback. Folio (4.5kg) Full Rerversed-leather. Leather thongs. Limited edition of 1000 copies, this being #111, signed on the limitation page by Sidney Lee. Facsimile of the Folio edition with a list of subscribers and introduction by Lee. Ephemera and Lee\'s supplementary Census of First Folios included (see photos below). First edition thus, Unbound, 24 leaves Stitched as issued, unopened and uncut. Printed with the Fell types.
CONDITION:VERY GOOD. An excellent, secure copy. Some wear and marks to leather binding. Rubbing to joints and to spine title pieces. Browning to endpapers. Interesting ephemera inserted: A very formal birthday message and a prospectus for another Shakespeare work (see photos). Slight age-toning. Very clean throughout. The Census (also printed in 1902) has some minor edge-wear and marks. It is totally uncut (unread) and fine internally. An excellent copy of a very fine facsimile of one of the most valuable printed books in the world. The census is landmark work, containing the first use of the word \"census\" in regard to bibliography.
Sir Sidney Lee (1859 – 1926) was an English biographer and critic. He was born Solomon Lazarus Lee at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London and educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history in 1882. In the next year he became assistant-editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. In 1890 he became joint editor, and on the retirement of Sir Leslie Stephen in 1891 succeeded him as editor.
Lee himself contributed voluminously to the Dictionary, writing some 800 articles, mainly on Elizabethan authors or statesmen. His sister Elizabeth Lee also contributed. While still at Balliol he had written two articles on Shakespearean questions, which were printed in The Gentleman\'s Magazine, and in 1884 he published a book about Stratford-on-Avon, with illustrations by Edward Hull. His article on Shakespeare in the fifty-first volume (1897) of the Dictionary of National Biography formed the basis of his Life of William Shakespeare (1898), which reached its fifth edition in 1905.
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The First Folio...
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare\'s plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio.
Printed in folio format and containing 36 plays (See full contents below photos)it was prepared by Shakespeare\'s colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell. It was dedicated to the \"incomparable pair of brethren\" William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery (later 4th Earl of Pembroke).
Although eighteen of Shakespeare\'s plays had been published in quarto prior to 1623, the First Folio is arguably the only reliable text for about twenty of the plays, and a valuable source text even for many of those previously published. The Folio includes all of the plays generally accepted to be Shakespeare\'s, with the exception of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and the two lost plays, Cardenio and Love\'s Labour\'s Won.
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Histories15 King John * – uncertain: a prompt-book, or \"foul papers.\"16 Richard II – typeset from Q3 and Q5, corrected against a prompt-book.17 Henry IV, Part 1 – typeset from an edited copy of Q5.18 Henry IV, Part 2 – uncertain: some combination of manuscript and quarto text.19 Henry V – typeset from Shakespeare\'s \"foul papers.\"20 Henry VI, Part 1 * – likely from an annotated transcript of the author\'s manuscript.21 Henry VI, Part 2 – probably a Shakespearean manuscript used as a prompt-book.22 Henry VI, Part 3 – like 2H6, probably a Shakespearean prompt-book.23 Richard III – a difficult case: probably typeset partially from Q3, and partially from Q6 corrected against a manuscript (maybe \"foul papers\").24 Henry VIII * – typeset from a fair copy of the authors\' manuscript.
Tragedies25 Troilus and Cressida – probably typeset from the quarto, corrected with Shakespeare\'s \"foul papers,\" printed after the rest of the Folio was completed.26 Coriolanus * – set from a high-quality authorial transcript.27 Titus Andronicus – typeset from a copy of Q3 that might have served as a prompt-book.28 Romeo and Juliet – in essence a reprint of Q3.29 Timon of Athens * – set from Shakespeare\'s foul papers or a transcript of them.30 Julius Caesar * – set from a prompt-book, or a transcript of a prompt-book.31 Macbeth * – probably set from a prompt-book.32 Hamlet – one of the most difficult problems in the First Folio: probably typeset from some combination of Q2 and manuscript sources.33 King Lear – a difficult problem: probably set mainly from Q1 but with reference to Q2, and corrected against a prompt-book.34 Othello – another difficult problem: probably typeset from Q1, corrected with a quality manuscript.35 Antony and Cleopatra * – possibly \"foul papers\" or a transcript of them.36 Cymbeline * – possibly another Ralph Crane transcript, or else the official prompt-book.Troilus and Cressida was originally intended to follow Romeo and Juliet, but the typesetting was stopped, probably due to a conflict over the rights to the play; it was later inserted as the first of the Tragedies, when the rights question was resolved. It does not appear in the table of contents.
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SHAKESPEARE\'S PLAYS*1623 1st FOLIO*LOVELY FACSIMILE*SIGNED/LTD EDITION*LEATHER*:
$1181.18