Shakespeare | The Works of William Shakespear, edited by Pope, London, 1723-25, 7 volumes

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

William Shakespeare

The works of Shakespear... Collated and corrected by the Former Editions, by Mr. Pope. London: for Jacob Tonson, 1725

7 volumes, 4to (283 x 224mm.), engraved portrait of Shakespeare by Vertue and series title-page printed in black and red in volume one, additional title page for volumes 2-7 (dated 1723-1725), engraved head- and tail-pieces, contemporary mottled calf, red edges, spotting and browning, upper covers detached to volumes 1, 4, and 7, upper joints of other volumes loosening, rebacked, extremities rubbed

FIRST POPE EDITION, the first quarto edition of Shakespeare's works, with the rare seventh volume of Poems published under a different imprint.

"If ever any author deserved the name of an Original, it was Shakespear...The Poetry of Shakespear was Inspiration indeed: he is not so much an Imitator, as an Instrument, of Nature; and 'tis not so just to say that he speaks from her, as that she speaks thro' him" (Pope's preface).