Stockdale’s Edition of Shakespeare: Including, in One Volume, The Whole of His Dramatic Works; with Explanatory Notes
London: John Stockdale, 1784. Thick octavo, measuring 9.25 x 5.5 inches: [16], [2], 1079, [1]. Full contemporary red morocco ruled in gilt, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt-ruled dentelles, all edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare, text printed in two columns, one page of publisher’s advertisements at rear. Two bookplates to front pastedown, early ink inscription to preliminary blank: “Francis Love Beckford / 1789 / Given in May 1816 by M.B. / to John L. Beckford.” Lightest shelfwear, offsetting from portrait, occasional light foxing.
First single-volume octavo edition of Shakespeare’s plays, including Rowe’s life of Shakespeare and Shakespeare’s will, designed to appeal to “the middling and lower ranks of the inhabitants of this country,” who had been priced out of previous editions, as well as to those readers looking for a light alternative to their library sets: “The book now offered to the public may commodiously be taken into a coach or a post-chaise, for amusement in a journey. Or if a company of gentlemen should happen, in conversation, to mention Shakespeare, or to dispute concerning any particular passage, a volume containing the whole of his plays may, with great convenience, be fetched by a servant out of a library or a closet.” Stockdale includes all thirty-six plays represented in the 1623 First Folio, with the text “as it has been settled by the most approved commentators.” A bright and attractive example of a popular milestone in Shakespeare printing.
Price: $2,500.00