Complete Plays of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 1768 RARE V EARLY EDITION 10 Vols STUNNING

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Mr WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE; his COMEDIES, HISTORIES and TRAGEDIES,

set out by himself in quarto, or by the players his fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those editions in ten volumes octavo; with an introduction: whereunto will be added, in some other volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a body of various readings entire.

Printed in London by Dryden Leach for J and R. Tonson in the Strand in 1768 and edited by Edward Cappell, 8vo. Complete in 10 volumes; a highly scarce set.

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The 1768 edition is identified as the second edition following that of 1765, both are equally rare and were actually printed simultaneously around the 10th of October 1765. 1000 copies of the first edition were printed and 750 of the second. All bibliographical sources claim that the 1765 and 1768 sets are mixed and actually are not able to be differentiated from each other aside from a few very small bibliographical points mainly regarding pagination and some minor variations in the first and second volumes. This set being published the 23rd of February, 1768.

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At the end of the initial commentary there is an incredibly valuable reference to printings of Shakespeare to include the folio editions from the first folio of 1623 to the fourth of 1685 and lots of other 17th century editions which is of course a hugely interesting read from both a scholarly and historical perspective.

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Volume 1:

Introduction, The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merry Wives of Windsor

Volume 2:

Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost

Volume 3:

A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew

Volume 4:

All's Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, Macbeth

Volume 5:

King John, Richard II, Henry IV Part I & II

Volume 6:

Henry V, Henry VI Parts I, II, & III.

Volume 7:

Richard III, Henry VIII, Coriolanus

Volume 8:

Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus

Volume 9:

Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, King Lear

Volume 10:

Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello

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Provenance: armorial bookplate of Thomas Theophilus Cock to front pastedowns.

Condition: Very Good (VG-)

Contemporary tree-calf bindings - very near contemporary, likely 18th century. Spines rubbed lacking original tooled labels but retaining the majority of the gilt. Some shelf wear and edge wear but generally very good. Boards with some superficial scratches and some corners with minor deformity but generally very sharp without issue. All volumes bound without half-titles else collated as complete. Toning and offsetting to endpapers as typical with calf bindings. Front board to fifth volume detached else all other boards attached with wear to joints and hinges but bindings firm. Page edges VG+ to near fine generally without issue. All text blocks near fine to fine, truly beautiful condition text blocks almost entirely without foxing, toning, or other issues. Some foxing affecting endpapers but not text. Generally an excellent set which shows well despite lacking the tooled labels.

18th century editions of Shakespeare are always highly scarce and desirable; this being one of the earliest attainable Shakespeare publications as earlier publications start to get seriously expensive!

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