Shakespeare, William | Much Ado About Nothing and Love's Labour Lost. From Shakespeare's Second Folio

Shakespeare, William

Much Ado About Nothing [Bound with:] Love's Labour Lost. London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, 1632

Folio (308 x 216 mm). 101-121; 122-144pp. Expertly bound to style in paneled calf, covers tooled in blind, upper cover gilt lettered.

From Shakespeare's second folio

Shakespeare's famed four folios comprise the first four editions of his collected plays, all printed in the 17th century. The second folio of 1632, like the first folio of 1623, contains 36 plays. It is estimated that fewer than 1,000 copies of the second folio were printed and fewer than 200 copies are in existence today.

"Much Ado About Nothing" revolves around lovers Count Claudio and Hero, who are due to be married a week into a very short courtship. While the characters of the play await the wedding, they become involved in various shenanigans: Don Pedro attempts to play matchmaker to Benedick, a fellow soldier, and Beatrice, the governor's niece. Meanwhile, Don John sets out to stop the wedding from happening entirely. In this tale of love and treachery, the characters uncover where lies the truth in these intersecting relationships.

This play is bound with "Love's Labour Lost," which tells the story of four young men—one of them the King of Navarre—who vow to avoid contact with women for three years in order to focus on their studies. However, their plans are thwarted when the Princess of France and her ladies come to visit the King's court.

The Shakespeare Folios have "an aura of book magic about them. For a bibliophile it is a volume devoutly to be wished for and rarely attained; to a library it is a crowning jewel of a collection. Shakespeare, indeed, is a name to conjure with. No lengthy explanations are needed; he is simply the most distinguished author in the English language" (Wolf).

REFERENCE

STC 22274a; Greg III:1113-1116; Jaggard, 496; Pforzheimer 906; Wolf, Legacies of Genuis 36