The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, in Nine Volumes: With his Life by Nicholas Rowe. Adorn'd with Cuts. To the last Volume is prefix'd, I. An Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage,, in Greece, Rome, and England. II. Observations upon the most Sublime Passages in this Author. III. A Glossary, explaining the Antiquated Words made use of throughout his Works. London: Printed for J. Tonson, et al., 1714, 12mo.
THE VERY RARE FIRST DUODECIMO EDITION OF THE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND ONE OF THE EARLIEST OBTAINABLE EDITIONS. THIS BEING THE MUCH MORE DESIRABLE PRINTING OF THIS EDITION WHICH INCLUDES SHAKESPEARE'S POEMS IN THE NINTH VOLUME.
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Nicholas Rowe was the first editor of William Shakespeare. He first released the works of Shakespeare in 1709, being the first edition following the four folio editions and a very significant moment in the publication of William Shakespeare. Brunet V, 337 calls this 1714 edition "Première édition en petit format et avec des gravures", i.e. the first edition in duodecimo format and with engravings, though the 1709 also had engravings for each play.
It is therefore quite reasonable to describe this edition as the second obtainable edition of the works of William Shakespeare, owing to the huge cost of the four folio editions, though the first Rowe edition is by no means affordable, usually selling for between £20,000 and £40,000, it is more obtainable than any of the four folios. This second Rowe edition is similarly beautiful with engravings for each play, as well as Rowe's essay on Shakespeare. Quite importantly, this edition also includes a printing of Shakespeare's poetry for which earlier examples are incredibly scarce and expensive. It is worth mentioning here that some bibliographies suggest this is the third Rowe edition owing to the various different impressions of the 1709 edition. Indeed, this 1714 edition had three different impressions. Two of these did not include the poems in the ninth volume, this is the most desirable impression which does with the "Curll" imprint of the title page. The 1714 edition was quoted in Alexander Pope's edition as the second edition, where Pope printed Rowe's preface, stating that it is taken "from the second edition (1714)", and we think it is more appropriate to refer to this as the second edition as the other impressions of the 1709 edition are more akin to reprints rather than new editions. Rowe himself also regarded this as the second edition.
This is the earliest set of the works of Shakespeare we have ever come across. It is usually found in individual volumes and sets are incredibly scarce. This does however make completing incomplete sets quite easy to achieve. It is also necessary to say that the Rowe editions of Shakespeare constituted the first attempt at a systematic division of all the plays into acts and scenes, the first to be illustrated, the first to abandon the folio format which was not particularly user-friendly, thus democratising access to reading Shakespeare, and the first to include an extended life and critique of Shakespeare, all of the aforementioned attributes setting the standard for all subsequent editions.
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This set includes the following plays, poems, etc:
The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado about Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like it, The Taming of the Shrew, All's Well That Ends Well, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V, Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3, Richard III, King Henry VIII, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, Pericles, London Prodigal, Thomas Lord Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle, The Puritan, A Yorkshire Tragedy, The Tragedy of Locrine, Venus and Adonis, Tarquin and Lucrece, Mr Shakespear's Miscellany Poems, Critical Remarks on His Plays and Poems, An Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome, and England, and a Glossary of the Old Words us'd in these Works.
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Size: 102 x 165 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
[i-xx, i-xl, pp.[1]-403]; [i-vii, pp.8-442, i (epilogue)]; [vii, pp.8-431]; [i-vii, pp.8-467]; [i-vii, pp.8-406]; [i-vii, pp.8-39[7], i-xxi (index)]; [i-vi, i-lvi, i-iv, pp.5-406]
Each present volume is complete with every illustration for all the present plays, the dramatis personae leaves, the character lists, half-titles, index, epilogue, etc. Lacks volumes three and seven and thus we have seven volumes of the original nine, but this is the most complete set of this rare printing we have seen. We can trace single volumes of both three and seven currently available online. Rarely, this set includes the often missing plays from the set - Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. The collation provided above follows chronologically for the present volumes, each volume collating as complete without any missing leaves. Small tear to final leaf of first volume, not affecting any text. Final leaf of the second volume (the epilogue) glued down thus constituting the effective pastedown, no text loss. Final leaf of volume eight mispaginated as 39, dropping the 7 (should read 397). Occasional blank bound elsewhere as opposed to the usual endpaper location.
Uniform full calf leather bindings which are almost certainly original to the time of publication. Spines rubbed with minor losses, more substantially so to the first volume. Gilt dulled and lost in places but legible. Shelf and edge wear. All boards are securely attached with joints rubbed but secure. Page edges in places non-uniform due to occasional misbound gatherings (as originally bound) but generally very good. Without shelf lean. Internally very clean throughout each volume without any foxing, writing, markings, etc. No attached bookplates or ownership inscriptions present, but with a very early ink (presumably) shelf reference to the head of the front free endpaper verso in each volume, the first volume being numbered 75 and subsequent volumes numbered 76, etc.
[Lowndes VI, 2259; Brunet V, 337].
