The Plays of William Shakespeare. SHAKESPEARE (William).

The Plays of William Shakespeare. In Twenty-One Volumes. With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators. To Which are Added, Notes, by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Revised and Augmented by Isaac Reed, With a Glossarial Index.

24 volumes in total.

Illustrated with engravings.

Fifth edition. 8vo. [225 x 150 x 775 mm]. Bound in full tan calf, the boards tooled with a dog tooth roll to the borders, the spine divided into six panels by raised bands, gilt compartments, lettered in gilt in the second and third panel on new red and green morocco labels respectively, marbled endleaves, matching marbled edges. (Boards slightly marked, extremities bumped and spines lightly rubbed, a few volumes with noticeable but smart repairs to the hinges, the odd volume with slightly weakened hinges yet holding, otherwise the bindings are sound).

London: J. Johnson, 1803

With:

SEYMOUR (E. H.)

Remarks, Critical, Conjectural, and Explanatory, Upon the, Plays of Shakespeare; Resulting From a Collation of the Early Copies, with that of Johnson and Steevens, Edited by Isaac Reed, Together with Some Valuable Extracts from the MSS. of the Late Right Honourable John, Lord Chedworth.

2 volumes. 8vo. Matching bindings.

London: J. Wright, 1805.

With:

AYSCOUGH (Rev. Samuel).

An Index to the Remarkable Passages and Words; Made Use of by Shakespeare; Calculated to Point Out the Different Meanings to Which the Words are Applied.

One volume. 8vo. Matching binding.

Dublin: William Jones, 1791.

Generally internally very clean, the odd volume with slightly heavier foxing than others, shelf marks written in ink are present on the reverse of the front flyleaves, the stamp of Wesleyan Training College present in some volumes, washed out in others, bookseller's sticker belonging to Waller & Son present on the pastedown on the first volume. Overall a handsome set in very good condition.

'This edition is often called the First Variorum edition, but that title actually belongs to the Johnson 1765 edition. Reed based this work on the last Steevens edition. (Jaggard pp. 509. Heritage Book Shop, Catalogue 197, Item 66).

Stock no. ebc9018