SHAKESPEARE (William).
The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare. In Eight Volumes, with An Account of the Life of The Author Written by Mr. Rowe.
A charming continental European edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published in Braunschweig, Germany and described by Jaggard as ‘the first edition in English produced on the continent’.
The present example is a reissue, with cancel title-pages, of the first Wagner edition, originally issued between 1797 and 1801. The title-page of the first issue promised explanatory notes, which did not in fact materialise, leaving the eighth volume of the set noticeably thinner than the others.
Monogram of H.D. to flyleaves with traces of old labels clumsily removed from front pastedowns of each volume, eight pages of manuscript quotations from Voltaire in an early hand to blanks of vol. 1, some typographical corrections made in ink, some occasional scattered spotting and toning; light shelf wear to extremities, spines somewhat rubbed, notwithstanding a very lovely set.
Jaggard 507; Lowndes 2263.
