37 full-page engravings. A beautifully illustrated eight-volume set of Shakespeare's plays in a handsome contemporary calf binding ruled in gilt, comprising the thirty-six dramatic works attributed to the Bard in the first folio, edited with explanatory notes by the literary critic Lewis Theobald (d.1744).

Theobald's interest in Shakespeare was centred ultimately not on adaptation but the recovery and explication of the author's genuine text. In an earlier work, Shakespeare Restored, Theobald had cautioned that 'the more the Editions of any Book multiply, the more the Errors multiply too'. The Works of Shakespeare thus sought to stay true to the author's original intention, and attacked the 'Freedom of Mr. Pope' (Preface) whose 1725 edition of Shakespeare had taken greater liberty with the playwright's work.


Second edition; 8 vols, 12mo (16.5 x 10 cm); titles in red, vol. 1 with portrait frontispiece, 36 further full-page engraved plates, woodcut initials, head and tailpieces, ownership stamp to front free endpaper of each vol.; contemporary gilt-ruled calf, gilt spine in compartments, edges stained red, minor restoration to joints and spine caps, wear to joints but holding, internally crisp and clean, a very attractive set; [48], 382; 430; 419, [1]; 466; 403, [1]; 465, [1]; 420; 342, [76]pp.