The Works of William Shakespeare

Whatever be the true date, it is certainly earlier than the next, which we call Q1 [Q], bearing the following imprint:

LONDON, Printed by I. H. and are to be sold by Francis Coules in the Old Baily without Newgate. 1636. |

In the Bodleian catalogue a copy is mentioned of the date 1675, but none such exists in the library itself.

The first edition of LUCRECE, which we have called Q1, was published in Quarto in 1594. It has the following title:

The running title is 'The Rape of Lvcrece.'

Copies of this edition are in the Duke of Devonshire's Library, the British Museum, and the Library of Sion College1. In the Bodleian' there are two copies, differing from each other in some important readings, which we have distinguished as Q (Bodl. 1) and Q (Bodl. 2). The former is marked 'Malone 34'; the latter 'Malone Add. 886'.

The second edition was printed in 1598. In order to avoid a different notation we have called this, though in reality an octavo, Q2. It has the following title:

LVCRECE. AT LONDON, | Printed by P. S. for Iohn | Harrison.

1598.

A copy of this edition is in the Capell Collection, which has been collated by Capell with a copy of Q1, apparently that in Sion College Library.

The third edition, our Q,, also in small octavo, was published in 1600, with the following title:

LVCRECE. | LONDON. | Printed by I. H. for Iohn Harison. |

1600.

1 It is stated by Dr Winsor that 'Capell's copy is missing from the Collection in Trinity College.' This is incorrect. Capell never possessed the edition of 1594, but enumerates it in his list as in the Library of Sion College. [W. A.W.] 2 And in the British Museum. [W. A. W.]

The only copy of this edition with which we are acquainted is in the Bodleian Library. It is bound up with the Venus and Adonis of [?] 1600 and was given by Farmer to Malone.

In 1607 appeared, also in octavo, what we have quoted as Q. Its title is:

LVCRECE. | AT LONDON, | Printed be N. O. for Iohn Ha- | rison. 1607.

In 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, it was reissued with the author's name as 'newly revised'; but as the readings are generally inferior to those of the earlier editions there is no reason for attaching any importance to an assertion which was merely intended to allure purchasers. The title-page of this edition, which we call Qs, is as follows:

Copies of this edition are in the British Museum and the Bodleian.

The sixth and last of the earlier editions of any importance appeared in 1624 with the following title:

A copy of this edition, which we call Qe, is in the Grenville Collection in the British Museum. Through the kindness of Mr P. H. Frere, we have been enabled to collate another copy which formerly belonged to Sir John Fenn, the editor of the Paston Letters.

Of these six editions, the fifth and sixth differ considerably in their readings from the first four, which follow each other without any important variations. An edition bearing the date of 1632 is mentioned in Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual, ed.

Bohn, but we have not been able to find it'. The last of all, which we have quoted as Q7 [Q.], appeared in 1655 and forms part of the same volume with Quarles's Banishment of Tarquin.

The SONNETS appeared for the first time in 1609. The title of some copies is as follows:

In others the imprint is

AT LONDON | By G. Eld for T. T. and are to be solde by Iohn Wright, dwelling at Christ Church gate. | 1609. |

At the end of the Sonnets was printed in the same edition A LOVERS COMPLAINT.

THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM was first printed in 1599 with the following title:

In the middle of sheet C is a second title:

1 I have since discovered two copies of this edition, Q7, with the imprint, 'LONDON, | Printed by R. B. for Iohn Harrison, and | are to be sold at his shop at the golden | Vnicorne in Pater-noster Row. | 1632. |' One of these is in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (A. 4. 8), and is bound with Hudson's translation of the History of Judith (no title). The other formerly belonged to George Steevens, and was bought at his sale in 1800 by Mr Heber for fifteen shillings. It afterwards came into the possession of the late Mr Christie Miller and is now at Britwell. It is bound with a copy of Charles Fitz Geffry's Blessed Birthday (Oxf. 1636). [W. A. W.]

2 The date 1599 has been cut off by the binder. [W. A. W.]

A unique1 copy of this edition, bound up with the Venus and Adonis of 1620, is in the Capell Collection. It was once in the possession of 'honest' Tom Martin of Palgrave, and a MS. note informs us that the volume cost a former owner 'but 3 halfpence.'

It was reprinted, together with some poems by Thomas Heywood, in 1612, and the whole were attributed to Shakespeare. The title at first stood thus:

In the Bodleian copy of this edition Malone has written the following note. 'All the poems from Sig. D 5 were written by Thomas Heywood, who was so offended at Jaggard for printing them under the name of Shakespeare, that he has added a postscript to his Apology for Actors, 4to 1612, on this subject, and Jaggard in consequence of it appears to have printed a new title-page to please Heywood, without the name of Shakespeare in it. The former title-page was no doubt intended to be cancelled, but by some inadvertence, they were both prefixed to this copy and I have retained them as a curiosity.'

The corrected title-page on the opposite leaf, A verso, is, except in the use of italics and Roman letters, the same, omitting By W. Shakespere.'

This is called 'The third Edition,' but no other between 1599 and 1612 is known to exist.

In 1640 a number of the Sonnets, together with some of the Poems from The Passionate Pilgrim and A Lover's Complaint, were collected into a volume, with some translations from Ovid

1 It is no longer unique. In 1867 a second copy was discovered in the Library of Sir Charles Isham, at Lamport Hall, bound with the Venus and Adonis of 1599. [W. A. W.]

and other pieces evidently not by Shakespeare, and published with the following title:

POEMS: WRITTEN BY WIL. SHAKE-SPEARE. | Gent. | Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and are to be sold by Iohn Benson, dwelling in St. Dunstans Church-yard. 1640. | |

The order of the poems in this volume is very arbitrary, but it is followed in the editions by Gildon (1710), and Sewell (1725 and 1728), as well as those published by Ewing (1771) and by Evans (1775). In all these editions, Sonnets 18, 19, 43, 56, 75, 76, 96 and 126 are omitted, and Sonnets 138 and 144 are given in the form in which they appear in the 'Passionate Pilgrim.'

It was in 1709 (according to Lowndes, Bibliographer's Manual, ed. Bohn) that the whole of Shakespeare's Minor Poems were issued in a small 8vo form, under the title,

A Collection of Poems, in Two Volumes; Being all the Miscellanies of Mr. William Shakespeare, which were Publish'd by himself in the Year 1609. and now correctly Printed from those Editions. The First Volume contains, I. VENUS and ADONIS. II. The Rape of LUCRECE. III. The Passionate Pilgrim. IV. Some Sonnets set to sundry Notes of Musick. The Second Volume contains One Hundred and Fifty Four Sonnets, all of them in Praise of his Mistress. II. A Lover's Complaint of his Angry Mistress. LONDON: Printed for Bernard Lintott, at the CrossKeys, between the Two Temple-Gates in Fleet-street.

No editor's name is given, and in Bohn's edition of Lowndes it is wrongly assigned to Gildon, who, as appears by Sewell's Preface, edited the Poems in 1710 with an introduction containing remarks upon the plays. The readings from this edition are therefore quoted by us as those of Lintott. In Capell's copy, with which he evidently intended to go to press, there are many corrections and emendations, which we have referred to as 'Capell MS.' This volume appears afterwards to have passed through Farmer's hands, as there is a note in his handwriting at the end of the Advertisement.' Possibly therefore it may

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The Works of William Shakespeare, Band 9