Lot 96
  • 96

Shakespeare, William.

bidding is closed

Description

  • Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true originall copies. The Second Impression. Thomas Cotes for John Smethwick, William Aspley, Richard Hawkins, Richard Meighen, and Robert Allot, 1632
Folio (334 x 224mm),  [PI]A6  *4  , A-2B6 2C2 , a-y6, 2a-3c6 3d4 , 454 leaves, the second collected edition of shakespeare’s plays,  title leaf on thicker paper from the second issue printed ca. 1641 by and for Richard Cotes, complete with all text leaves, letterpress title with engraved portrait by Droeshout, woodcut head-pieces and initials, text in double column, 66 lines, roman and italic type, headlines and catchwords, early eighteenth-century calf, spine gilt in seven compartments with floral and leafy designs, upper cover stamped with the crest of John Kent or his father John Kent of Winterslow near Salisbury (c.1706-1773), eighteenth-century autograph inscription signed by John Kent on verso of front endpaper, bookplate of  the barrister and M.P. Robert Hurst (1750-1843), various inscriptions and pen trials on recto of  "To the Reader" leaf and endpapers including seventeenth-century signatures of William Mille and John and Ann Monke (see provenance below) and the word "Shakespeare" written twice in a calligraphic hand, rebacked preserving the original spine, inner joints repaired, corners and edges of covers repaired, repairs and restoration to endpapers,  first leaf  [PI]A1 and final leaf 3d4  expertly re-inserted (together with front endpapers ), final leaf 3d4 possibly supplied from another copy around or soon after publication, small tear to foot of A1, dampstain to foot of C3-4, small tear to foot of O2, small hole at head of P6, small internal tear to Q2, dampstain to foot of c5-d6 (small tear to d5), inkmarks on recto of gg3 and verso of 3c3, some slight soiling to tt1-2 and latter half of volume, slight foxing to zz3-4, somewhat crudely repaired tear to 3d3

a near fine copy of the second folio edition of shakespeare’s plays, containing the first appearance in print of John Milton (an epitaph in 16 verses printed on A5r), and with an interesting late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century provenance.


Provenance

(1) "Will Mille 1661", signature on verso of "To the Reader" leaf

(2) John Monke and his wife Ann, inscribed on recto of "To the Reader" leaf  "Mr John Mounke 1663", "John Monk", "The right honourable M[ist]r[es]s Ann Mounke sole wife to ye above John", inscribed on final leaf 3d4 "Ex libris Johann Monke", "John Monke" and "Elisabeth"

(3) John Kent or his father John Kent of Winterslow near Salisbury (1706-1773), crest (30 x 28mm) on upper cover, autograph inscription on front endpaper signed by John Kent ("N.B. The chasm in the title page [in fact an endpaper] is made taking away a curious print of Shakespeare, which I have inserted in one of my folio volumes of english heads. J. Kent"). 

John Kent junior was the product of his father’s marriage in 1736 to Charlotte, daughter of Thomas Viscount Windsor and Charlotte daughter and heir of Philip, 7th  Earl of Pembroke (who had died without male issue in 1683).  The first and second folios of Shakespeare are, of course, both dedicated to the 3rd and 4th Earls of Pembroke, William and Philip respectively (the latter previously Earl of Montgomery). This raises the possibility that this copy may originally have been owned by one or both of the dedicatees of the First Folio, and that it passed into the Kent family via Charlotte, daughter of Charlotte daughter and heir of the 7th Earl.

John Kent senior appears to have owned property both at South Newton and Winterslow, Wiltshire. “In November 1739 it was reported that his house in Winterslow had burned down, but he was still described as ‘of Winterslow’ at the time of his death. In his early years he was heavily involved in the administration of the Salisbury concerts” (biographical note in Donald Burrow and Rosemary Dunhill, eds., Music and Theatre in Handel’s World. The Family Papers of James Harris 1732—1780). There are a number of letters by Kent to James Harris in these published papers (1730s and 1740s, several in connection with Salisbury subscription concerts—in which Kent was clearly intimately involved--including performances of the Handel oratorios Alexander’s Feast and Saul,).  The family of the philosopher and musician Harris had been established at a house in Salisbury Cathedral Close since the mid-seventeenth century. Harris was closely involved in stage and musical performances in Salisbury, as was, it is clear, John Kent himself. John Kent junior subscribed to Prolegomena to the Dramatic Writings of William Shakespeare (Vol.1, 1788).

(4) The barrister and M.P. Robert Hurst (1750-1843), bookplate

Robert Hurst (1750-1843) was a barrister of 'great experience and ability' who was successively Member of Parliament for Steyning and Horsham (1812-1829), and was retained by the 11th Duke of Norfolk for his electoral ventures from 1786. Hurst vacated his seat in April 1829 after the Catholic Emancipation Bill to make room for the Duke of Norfolk's son Henry Charles Howard, Earl of Surrey, who became eligible to sit in the House of Commons and was duly "elected" in Hurst's place. 'Hurst was also a trustee of the Shelley estates and had purchased Horsham Park in c.1800, although the Hurst family had held land in the parish possibly since the mid thirteenth century. Robert's son Robert Henry, also M.P. for Horsham (1832-1847, d. 1857), left the country to escape his creditors in 1845, and was succeeded by his son, another Robert Henry, who was also M.P. for Horsham (1865-1875), and who wielded a great influence in the town until his death in 1905. His younger son Col. A. R. Hurst sold Horsham Park house and grounds in 1928.' (History of the County of Sussex: Vol.6 Part 2 (Oxford, 1986), [cf. Albery, W. A Parliamentary History of the Ancient Borough of Horsham 1295-1885 (London, 1927); Thorne, R.G. (ed.) History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820 (London, 1986)]

(5) By direct descent to the present owner

Literature

STC 22274; Greg III, pp.1113-1116; Bartlett 120; Todd Studies in Bibliography, Vol.V, 1952, pp.81-108

Catalogue Note

The second folio, which in principle was a page-for-page reprint of the First Folio of 1623 (see lot 95), was printed in 1632 by Thomas Cotes, who had taken over the Jaggard shop following Isaac’s death in 1627. Like the First Folio it was printed for a syndicate of publishers, which again included John Smethwick and William Aspley. Although many obvious corrections were made the printing introduced hundreds of minor changes to the text, including many errors.

This copy has the title leaf from the reissue ca.1641 by and for Richard Cotes which reprinted the original sheet [PI]A2.5: readings “Tho.” and “Church-yard”, and encroaching of portrait onto “LONDON,” in imprint. There was a second re-issue around 1641 or later. See Greg III, p.1116, who draws upon the investigations of W.B. Todd in his article “The Issues and States of  the Second Folio and Milton’s Epitaph on Shakespeare” (Studies in Bibliography, Vol.V, 1952, pp.81-108). However the would-be conjugate leaf [PI]A5 has the original setting on the recto which contains “Upon the effigies of my worthy friend…William Shakespeare” (by an unknown author) and a 17-line poem by John Milton beneath (“An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke poet, W. Shakespeare”).  Line 13, for instance has “VV” instead of “W”, line 17 “Vnder” instead of “Under” and the same line “-ypointing” instead of “-ypointed”. The title is attached to a stub which appears to be a portion of the original title leaf which would have been the true conjugate of the “Effigies” leaf (a small amount of the engraved portrait can just be seen).  Perhaps the original title leaf was damaged and another was supplied (almost certainly before 1663) from the second issue of c.1641; or it may be that this is one of an unknown number of copies of the re-issue in which the original [PI]A5 was used together with the new version of the title-page.

The second issue came about since in 1632 not all copies printed were allocated and that fewer of the title and its conjugate were prepared than of the other sheets. “When the publishers’ stocks ran out these excess copies were drawn upon in two batches, being on each occasion completed with a different reprint of [PI]A2.5” (Greg p.1116). The paper is thicker than the original and “is of a make that has been found elsewhere only in books printed in 1637 and 1640…we may perhaps conjecture that the surplus copies came to light on the occasion of a stock-taking upon the death of Thomas Cotes in 1641” (op.cit.).