Description
From the Second Folio of William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, bound with Love’s Labour Lost, published in London in 1632 by Thomas Cotes.
Folio, 101-121pp; 122-144pp, [16pp. blank]. Quarter brown calf, marbled boards, title in gilt on spine, raised bands. All leafends in gilt. Period inscription in ink below title. A few marks in pencil, internally clean.
(Pforzheimer 906) (STC 22274a) (Greg III: 1113-1116)
The inscription below the title reads: “Similar to Hero’s case is that of Claribella; Spenser’s Faerie Queene B.2. Ca[n]to 4. / and of the […?]r Ginevra; Orlando Furioso, Cant. 4.5.”
Possibly a reference by Ginevra to a character from Handel’s Ariodante. A bibliographic inscription comparing Much Ado’s Hero to similar female characters from other works.Â
Shakespeare’s second folio from 1632, like the first folio from 1623, contains a total of 36 plays. There were upwards of 1700 corrections to the text between the first and second folio. It is believed that approximately 1000 copies of the second folio were produced, with less than 200 in existence today.
