The Works of Shakespeare: in eight volumes.

With 37 full-page engravings. A beautifully illustrated eight-volume set of Shakespeare's plays in a handsome contemporary sprinkled calf binding ruled in gilt, comprising the 36 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.

The last volume contains a bibliography of early editions divided into three sections headed 'Editions of authority, of middle authority, of no authority'. The latter includes Rowe's edition of 1709 (Jaggard).

8 vols; 12mo (18 x 11 cm); illustrated with engraved portrait frontispiece to vol. 1 and 36 further full-page engraved plates by H. Gravelot (i.e. Hubert-François Bourguignon), woodcut initials, head and tailpieces, small wormhole to fore-edge margin of vol. 5 not affecting text; contemporary sprinkled calf, covers double-ruled in gilt, spine in 6 gilt-banded compartments, contrasting red and brown morocco lettering-pieces, sprinkled edges, small abrasion with loss to upper cover of vol. 7, else minor wear, very good; xii, [56], 395, [1]; 431, [1]; 430; 399, [1]; 488; 458; 370, [84]pp.

ESTC T138861; Jaggard p.503.