Description
The Works of Shakespear, in Six Volumes, published in 1743 and 1744, edited by Sir Thomas Hanmer, Speaker of the House of Commons. This is the first edition edited by Hanmer.
Quarto, [six volumes]. Bound in full calf, all volumes rebacked, raised bands with decorative gilt compartments, title in gilt over red morocco spine label on each volume. Red dyed edges, marbled endpapers. Prefaces by Sir Thomas Hanmer and Alexander Pope, with Rowe’s life of Shakespeare, in Volume I. Facsimile of a handwritten index to all six volumes affixed to front flyleaf of Volume I. Glossary with errata in Volume VI. Occasional toning, a few points of foxing, solid text block in all six volumes. Armorial bookplate of Edward Venables Townshend, Esq. of Wincham affixed to front endpaper of each volume.
Complete with all full-page illustrations, including frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare, two plates of the Westminster Abbey monument and the Stratford bust, and 36 copper engravings by Hubert Gravelot after Francis Hayman, one for each play.
(Mullins, p. 29) (Lowndes III, 2260) (Jaggard, 499) (ESTC T138604) An attractive set.
Includes the following plays: Volume I: Tempest; Midsummer-Night’s Dream; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Merry Wives of Windsor; Measure for Measure; Comedy of Errors; Much ado about Nothing. Volume II: Merchant of Venice; Love’s Labour’s lost; As You Like It; Taming of the Shrew; All’s well that Ends well; Twelfth-Night; Winter’s Tale. Volume III: King Lear; King John; King Richard II; King Henry IV; King Henry V. Volume IV: King Henry VI; King Richard III; King Henry VIII. Volume V: Timon of Athens; Coriolanus; Julius Caesar; Antony and Cleopatra; Titus Andronicus; Macbeth. Volume VI: Troilus and Cressida; Cymbeline; Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet; Othello.
