William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Fourth Folio, 1685. Raptis Rare Books

Hello, my name is Matthew Raptis and I'm here at Raptis Rare Books in Palm Beach, Florida. Today I would like to talk to you about this remarkable piece, a first edition of William Shakespeare's fourth folio, the final and most magnificent of the four 17th century folio editions of Shakespeare's plays. 16th century English poet, playwright, and actor, William Shakespeare is regarded as the most distinguished author in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. His works consist of approximately 38 plays and 154 sonnets which have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright to this day. Shakespeare's early plays were primarily comedies and histories which continue to be regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. His later works were primarily tragedies including Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth and his late phase wrote tragic comedies also known as romances including perhaps his most famous work, Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on modern theater and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterization, plot, and language. Shakespeare influenced countless novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. American novelist Herman Melville's Moby Dick was directly influenced by Shakespeare's style of monologue composition. His Captain Ahab, a classic tragic hero inspired by King Lear. During Shakespeare's lifetime stage plays were not generally taken seriously as literature and were not considered worthy of being collected into folios. So the plays printed while he was alive were printed as quartos. It was not until 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, that English playwright Ben Johnson defied this convention publishing the first collection of plays in folio format. Four folios of Shakespeare's works were published posthumously. The first in 1623 and the final fourth folio in 1685. What I have here is the first edition of the fourth folio. Although there is no accurate census on the number of folios still extant today, it is believed that copies of each printing number only in the hundreds, the fourth being the rarest form. As we can see, this example is magnificently presented, bounded, full-brown morocco with elaborated gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, and gilt ruling to both the front and rear panels. This volume also contains an exceptional frontispiece engraving of Shakespeare opposite the title page. This is the rare Knight and Saunders issue with their names on the title page printed by H. Herringham. The title page mentions that this edition is to be sold by Knight and Saunders whom Herringham turned the retail side of his prominent publishing and book selling business over to in 1684. Fourth folios almost invariably bear the imprints Herringman, Brewster, Bentley, or Herringman, Brewster, Chiswell, Bentley. The condition of this book is quite exceptional as we can see throughout the pages. The fourth folio contains seven plays in addition to those that appeared in preceding folios including the authentic Pericles, Prince of Tyre, as well as a good deal of corrections and modernization of the text designed to make it easier to read and understand. Being the final folio published in the 17th century, the modernized fourth folio served as the base for the majority of late 18th century editions and adaptations which would become widely read foundational texts in the study of literature. This is quite an amazing piece of volume devoutly wished for and rarely attained. For more information please visit our website raptusrarebooks.com