Beschreibung:

Comedies, Histories and Tragedies; Published according to the true Originall Copies. Second Impression], London: John Smethwick, William Aspley, Richard Hawkins Richard Meighen, and Robert Allot 1632, woodcut head-pieces and initials, roman and italic type, text in double column, 66 lines, headlines and catchwords, expertly and discreetly cleaned, three preliminary leaves: 'To the Reader', title-page with portrait and 'Commendatory Verses' ([pi]A1, A2 & A5) all supplied in fine facsimile on old paper, dedication leaf ([pi]A3) expertly restored with some loss of head-piece and several words in upper half of leaf to recto and verso, following leaf 'To the great variety of Readers' similarly restored with a little loss of lettering in three lines only, dust-soiling to initial five original preliminary leaves, pinhead burn hole to A1 with loss of one letter to recto only, further tiny burn holes to outer blank margin of S3 and affecting two letters to X1 verso, minor damage affecting 8 words with some textual loss to lower lines of Y4v and Y5r, skilful closed tear repairs into text without loss to lower margin of 2A3 and upper margins of a6, b1, b2, e1 and q3, scattered spotting, minor marks and light browning with a few darker spots or streaks to C5, C6, O6, 2A3 and 2A4, slightly indistinct 18th-century ink inscription at head of 2a1 verso giving the colophon information and noting that this was printed sixteen years after the author's death, two old ownership name inscriptions to front pastedown, the first heavily inked out (possibly reading 'Catherine Longford Her Book') and dated 1773, the second name Baptist Smart, dated 1802, Richard Adams's bookplate, contemporary blind-panelled calf, neatly rebacked in calf gilt with five raised bands to match, old leather spine label retained ('SHAKESPEAR'S / WORKS'), slightly rubbed, upper corners a little bruised and lower corners discreetly repaired, folio (336 x 227mm) The Second Folio edition of the most important work in English literature and a cornerstone of any rare book collection. The importance of the folio editions of Shakespeare cannot be overstated and without them as many as eighteen of his plays may never have survived. Produced in large format, and including laudatory poems and prefaces from his contemporaries, the folio editions provide a testament to the stature of Shakespeare in his own time. This second collected edition of Shakespeare's plays is set page-for-page from a corrected copy of the First Folio, 1623. There are five variants of the Second Folio as identified by the imprint on the title-page; the text and colophon being identical in all variants. The facsimile title-page found here, with the Shakespeare portrait by Martin Droeshout bears the John Smethwick imprint. Its conjugate leaf in the original, the 'Effigies' leaf, also present here in facsimile, has the text of John Milton's (anonymous) verses in its integral first state (Todd 1b). These 16 lines of rhymed couplets, 'An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare', were the chief addendum to the First Folio and were the first of Milton's English-language poems to be printed. When the Second Folio was reissued in 1641 it was these two conjugate leaves that were reprinted in two distinct settings and issued with the remainder copies. Without these two original leaves it is therefore not possible to establish which issue this copy belongs to. The three facsimile and two restored preliminary leaves aside this is a large and generally attractive and fresh copy in a pleasing and contemporary full calf binding. There is no evidence of leaves supplied from other copies, nor, unusually, is there any damage to the final leaf. It is estimated that no more than 1000 copies of the Second Folio were printed, and it is believed fewer than 200 copies are still in existence today, many of which are inevitably incomplete or defective. 451 (of 454) leaves. Collation: [pi]A6 [-1,2,5, all supplied in facsi