SHAKESPEARE, William. A leaf from each of the four folios. All’s Well, That Ends Well - The Tragedy Of Richard The Third - The Tragedy Of Hamlet - The Merchant Of Venice. (London: 1623, 1632, 1663, 1685)

AUTHOR: SHAKESPEARE, William. 

TITLE: A leaf from each of the four folios. All’s Well, That Ends Well - The Tragedy Of Richard The Third - The Tragedy Of Hamlet - The Merchant Of Venice.

PUBLISHER: London: 1623, 1632, 1663, 1685.

DESCRIPTION: Comprising to following pages:
FIRST FOLIO (1623). All’s Well, That Ends Well. Page 253/254. Measuring 12-3/8" x 8".
SECOND FOLIO (1632). The Tragedy Of Richard The Third. Page 173/174. Measuring 12-9/16" x 8-11/16".
THIRD FOLIO (1663). The Tragedy Of Hamlet. Page 735/736. Measuring 12-3/8" x 8-1/2".
FOURTH FOLIO (1685). The Merchant Of Venice. Page 163/164. Measuring 13-5/8" x 8-5/8".

Each leaf housed in it’s own maroon cloth chemise, the four chemise’s housed in a matching maroon clamshell slipcase, gilt lettered black morocco spine label.

CONDITION: Each leaf with good margins, without any repairs, some mild toning but overall a VERY GOOD set of leaves well presented and preserved.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The “THIRD FOLIO” leaf contains the quote “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” perhaps the second most famous Shakespeare quote after “To be or not to be”. The four folios were the only collected editions of Shakespeare's plays published in the 17th century. The First Folio of 1623 is of inestimable importance for English literature, being the sole source for 18 of Shakespeare's plays that would have otherwise been lost. The Second Folio of 1632 included an additional encomium by the young John Milton, his first published poem in English, and modernized some of the spelling and punctuation. "The Second Folio was issued when England under Charles I was drifting into civil war. It helped to keep alive the poetry of Shakespeare during the days of the Commonwealth when play-acting was proscribed as a work of the devil" (Willoughby's introduction). The Third Folio of 1664 added the play Pericles and six spurious Shakespeare plays. It is the rarest of the folios, due no doubt to a large part of the edition being destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The Fourth Folio completed the great quartet in 1685. It maintained the text of the Third Folio and was in turn used as the basis for the edited texts of the 18th century.

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).