The plays of William Shakespeare : in ten volumes : with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators : to which are added notes / by Samuel Johnson LL. D.

The plays of William Shakespeare : in ten volumes : with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators : to which are added notes / by Samuel Johnson LL. D.

Plays. 1766. Leathley

Dublin : Printed for A. Leathley; C. Wynne; P. Wilson; J. Exshaw; H. Saunders; J. Potts; S. Watson; J. Mitchell; and J. Williams, MDCCLXVI [1766]

10 v. : 1 port. (engraving) ; 17 cm (12mo)

Vol. 1 advertisement: "the publishers have not omitted any opportunity of making this edition as compleat as possible. They have carefully corrected a large errata in that printed in London; and also, with great pains and trouble have distributed into their proper places a number of curious notes, sent to Mr. Johnson by some of his learned friends, and by him inserted in an appendix. They have also made some valuable additions from the Twenty plays of Shakespeare, lately published by that ingenious critic George Stevens, Esq., by which means they hope to give this edition a preference to any now extant."

Vol. 1 with a general title page. Volumes 1-10 with dated volume title pages, with v. 3 mis-dated 1756. Volumes 3-10 with volume divisional-titles reading: "the plays of William Shakespeare". All plays with a half-title.

Engraved frontispiece portrait unattributed.

Vol. 1 with the prefaces of Johnson, Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton, and Some account of the life, &c. of Mr. William Shakespear by Rowe.

The bookseller H. Bradley's name does not appear on the title pages of the individual volumes. Variant: H. Bradley does not appear in the imprint on the collective title page in vol.1.

v. 1. Tempest ; Midsummer night's dream ; Two gentlemen of Verona
v. 2. Measure for measure ; Merchant of Venice ; As you like it ; Love's labour's lost
v. 3. Winter's tale ; Twelfth night ; Merry wives of Windsor ; Taming of the shrew
v. 4. Comedy of errors ; Much ado about nothing ; All's well that ends well ; King John
v. 5. King Richard II ; King Henry IV
v. 6. Henry V ; King Henry VI
v. 7. King Richard III ; King Henry VIII ; King Lear
v. 8. Timon of Athens ; Titus Andronicus ; Macbeth ; Coriolanus
v. 9. Julius Caesar ; Antony and Cleopatra ; Cymbeline ; Troilus and Cressida
v. 10. Romeo and Juliet ; Hamlet ; Othello.

English short title catalogue (ESTC), T42453
Fleeman, J.D. Johnson, 65.10SP/3
Jaggard, W. Shakespeare bibliography, p. 501

Ireland -- Dublin.

PR2752 1766a Sh.Col.

Variant, without Bradley's name on collective t.p. Vol. 6 with volume divisional and volume half-titles bound between pages 24-25 of text; v.7-8,10 without divisional titles. Armorial bookplate (motto: Indignante invidia florebit justus) of Lord Branden [ie. John Crosbie]. Prize bookplate of Trinity College, Dublin lettered with names and dates in manuscript: "Ingenuo magnaeque spei adolescenti Honorabili Johanni Crosbie ... In classe prima ... An. Dom. 1769." Calf prize bindings with gilt armorial devices on front and back covers. Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Folger.

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