Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories and tragedies. : Published according to the true originall copies.

RESTRICTED. Available by special permission only.

Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories and tragedies. : Published according to the true originall copies.

Plays

The second impression.

London : Printed by Tho [sic] Cotes, for Robert Allot, and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the blacke Beare in Pauls Church yard, 1632 [i.e. ca. 1641]

[20], 303, [1], 46, 49-100, [2], 69-232, 168, 269-419, [1] p. : 1 port. (engraving) ; 32 cm (fol.)

Colophon: Printed at London by Thomas Cotes, for John Smethwick, William Aspley, Richard Hawkins, Richard Meighen, and Robert Allot, 1632.

Signatures: [superscript pi]A⁶ (±[superscript pi]A2.5) *⁴ A-2B⁶ 2C² a-3c⁶ 3d⁴.

Pollard, A.W. Short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English books printed abroad, 1475-1640 (2nd ed.) (STC), 22274e.5
Greg, W.W. Bibliography of the English printed drama to the Restoration, p. 1116

Great Britain -- England -- London.

STC 22274 Fo.2 no.38

Folger copy 38 is nominally of the third issue, as formulated by William B. Todd, "Issues and states of the Second Folio and Milton's epitaph on Shakespeare," Studies in bibliography, v. 5 (1952-53), p. 81-108. However, the issue cannot be definitively determined. This copy contains [superscript pi]A([superscript pi]A2) (cancellans title leaf), the recto of which (title page) reads consistently as of the third issue, but in place of its conjugate, [superscript pi]A([superscript pi]A5) (cancellans "Effigies" leaf) proper to the third issue, this copy contains [superscript pi]A5 (cancellandum "Effigies" leaf) proper to the first issue (in state Ib); either (or both) of these leaves could be supplied from another copy.

On [superscript pi]A([superscript pi]A2) recto (title page), the first line of the title statement and the three lines of the imprint are touched up or supplied in pen-and-ink facsim. In the imprint, the swash "R" of "Robert", recorded by Giles E. Dawson, TLS, Feb. 1, 1947, p. 65, is unquestionably supplied in manuscript and accordingly is not a press variant.

Port. (on title page) in state 3.

Leaves [superscript pi]A2-*1 have margins patched very unobtrusively and probably have adjacent text touched up with pen and ink.

Leaves 3c3-5 are mutilated in the outer margin, affecting the catchword on 3c4 recto and some rules. Wanting 3d4 (including the colophon); supplied in manuscript facsim.

Leaf e6 (short and narrow and watermarked redundantly with e1) is supplied from another copy. Either leaf f1 or f6 (watermarked redundantly) is supplied from another copy; probably f1 (touched up with pen and ink on the recto). Leaf 2y6 (short, guarded) is probably supplied from another copy.

Imperfections affect text very slightly on A3, E4, u6, and 2h5.

Manuscript additions include: (1) "A discourse by way of <preface to william shakespeare>", 17th-cent. (cropped), on [superscript pi]A6 verso; (2) signature, 17th-cent. (undecipherable, cropped), on F5 recto; (3) annotations, 17th-cent., throughout 1 Hen. IV (d5 verso-f5 verso); (4) annotations, 17th-cent., throughout Caesar (2l5 recto-2n3 verso); and (5) passages marked passim with a red "X".

Bookplate of Sidney Graves Hamilton.