William Shakespeare | Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, 1685, THE FOURTH FOLIO

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

William Shakespeare

Mr. William Shakespear's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true original copies. Unto which is added, seven Plays, never before printed in folio. The Fourth Edition. London: printed for H. Herringman, E. Brewster, and R. Bentley, 1685.

THE FOURTH COLLECTED EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS, folio (359 x 219mm.), collation: [π]² [π]A⁴, A-Y⁶ Z⁴, 2B-2Z⁶, *3A-*3D⁶, *3E⁸, 3A-4B⁶ 4C², engraved portrait by Droeshout with verses by Ben Jonson beneath, woodcut initials, text in double column, roman and italic type, printer's device on title-page, headlines and catchwords, later reverse calf, red edges, shelfmark to front pastedown, leaf with engraved portrait by Droeshout with verses by Ben Jonson beneath remounted (perhaps taken from another copy) and with section supplied at lower margin (not affecting text or illustration), small supplied section to lower margin of T⁵ (just touching catchword), small marginal repairs to A^s, P⁵, LL², *Ddd, and Eee³ (not affecting text), small closed tear to B⁴ (not affecting text), C⁶ weakening at upper margin, tiny rust holes to Ee, Nn⁴, and Vvv³, extremities slightly rubbed

A FINE COPY OF THE FOURTH FOLIO, THE STATELIEST OF ALL THE FOUR EDITIONS, printed on a Royal paper stock, distinctly larger than the sheets of the First, second or third folios. Printing was shared between three shops. Robert Roberts is known to have printed the Comedies and the preliminary leaves (see F. Bowers, Shakespeare Quarterly, July 1951, iii. 241-6). The fourth folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, like the third folio of 1663-4, incudes at the end Pericles and the six spurious plays The London Prodigall, The History of Thomas Lord Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle, The Puritan Widow, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and The Tragedy of Locrine. These had previously been published as late Elizabethan or early Jacobean quartos with attributions to Shakespeare or "W.S.".

LITERATURE

Bartlett 123a; Greg III, pp. 1119-1121; Pforzheimer 910; Wing S2915