Fom a Model in Plaister taken from the Life by Roubilliac

EDW. CAPELL ESQ

London Printed for John Bell British Library Strand, October 33 1787.

Of these editions some have passed several times through the press; but only such as vary from each other are here enumerated.

To this list might be added, several spurious and mutilated impressions; but as they appear to have been executed without the smallest degree of skill, either in the manners or language of the time of Shakspere, and as the names of their respective editors are prudently concealed, it were useless to commemorate the number of their volumes, or the distinct date of each publication.

Some of our legitimate editions will afford a sufficient specimen of the fluctuation of price in books.An ancient quarto was sold for six-pence; and the

*For correcting the press and making an index to Mr. Rowe's 12mo. edition.

+ For assistance to Mr. Pope in correcting the press. For the same services.

For correcting the sheets of Pope's 12mo.

Of Mr. Theobald's edition no less than 11,360 have been printed.

folios 1623 and 1632, when first printed, could not have been rated higher than at ten shillings each.Very lately, one, and two guineas, have been paid for a quarto; the first folio is usually valued at seven or eight but what price may be expected for it. hereafter, is not very easy to be determined, the conscience of Mr. Fox, Bookseller, Holborn, having lately permitted him to ask no less than two guineas for two leaves out of a mutilated copy of that impression, though he had several, almost equally defective, in his shop. The second folio is commonly rated at two or three guineas.

At the late Mr. Jacob Tonson's sale, in the year 1767, one hundred and forty copies of Mr. Pope's edition of Shakspere, in six volumes quarto (for which the subscribers paid six guineas), were disposed of among the booksellers at sixteen shillings per set. Seven hundred and fifty of this edition were printed.

At the same sale, the remainder of Dr. Warbur ton's edition, in eight volumes 8vo. printed in 1747 (of which the original price was two pounds eight shillings, and the number printed 1000) was sold off: viz. 178 copies, at eighteen shillings each.

On the contrary, Sir Thomas Hanmer's edition, printed at Oxford in 1744, which was first sold for three guineas, had arisen to nine or ten, before it was reprinted.

It appears, however, from the foregoing catalogue (when all reiterations of legitimate edition are taken into the account, together with five spurious oneş

printed

printed in Ireland, one in Scotland, one at Birmingham, and four in London, making in the whole thirty-five impressions) that not less than 35,000 copies of our author's works have been dispersed, exclusive of the quartos, single plays, and such as have been altered for the stage. Of the latter, as exact a list as I have been able to form, with the assistance of Mr. Reed, of Staple-Inn (than whom no man is more conversant with English publications both ancient and modern, or more willing to assist the literary undertaking of others), will be found in the course of the following pages.

OLD EDITIONS

O F

SHAKSPERE's POEMS.

I. SHAKSPERE'S Poems, 1609, 4to.

II. Do. 1640. 8vo. Tho. Cotes, sold by John Benson.

III. Passionate Pilgrim, Poems by Do. 1599, 8vo. small, for W. Jaggard, sold by W. Leake.

IV. Rape of Lucrece, a Poem, 1594, 4to. Richard Field, for John Harrison.

V. Do. 1598. 8vo. P. S. for Do.

VI. Do. 1607, 8vo. N. O. for Do.

VII. Do. 12mo. (Newly revised) T. S. for Roger Jackson, 1616.

VIII. Venus and Adonis, a Poem, 1620, 8vo. for J. P.*

IX. Do. 12mo. by J. H. sold by Francis Coules, 1636.

X. The Rape of Lucrece, whereunto is annexed the Banishment of Tarquin, by John Quarles, 12mo. 1665.

MODERN EDITIONS.

SHAKSPERE'S Poems, 8vo. for Bernard Lintot, no date. 8vo. by Gildon, 1710.

4to. and 12mo. by Sewell, 1728.

PLAYS ASCRIBED TO SHAPSPERE, Either by the Editors of the two later Folios, or by the Compilers of ancient Catalogues.

1. Arraignment of Paris, 1584 †. Henry Marsh. 2. Birth of Merlin, 1662, Tho. Johnson, for Francis Kirkman and Henry Marsh

3. Edward III. ‡ 1596, for Cuthbert Burby. 2. 1599, Simon Stafford, for Do.

* See the following Extract of Entries in the books of the Stationers' Company.

+ It appears from an epistle prefixed to Greene's Arcadia, that the Arraignment of Paris was written by George Peele, the author of King David and Fair Bethsabe, &c. 1599:

See the following Extracts from the books at Stationers' Hall.

4. Fair