SHAKESPEARE, William (1564–1616)

The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare [Shakespeare]

Colophon: “Chiswick: Printed by C. Whittingham. Sold by Carpenter and Son; J. Carr; Sharpe and Hailes; Gale, Curtis, and Fenner; R. Jennings; and J. Martin; London. 1814” [individual plays dated 1813]

7 vols; small 8vo, 122 × 80mm; various paginations.

A beautiful first edition set of first edition of Whittingham’s Chiswick Shakespeare, each of the seven volumes inscribed ‘Sophia Lygon’, and bearing the armorial bookplate of Sir Charles E. Kent.

The Whittingham Shakespeare was to become one of the most popular editions of the 19th century, and his Chiswick Press is seen as a precursor of the ‘private press’ movement of William Morris and others later in the century.

Charles Whittingham (1767–1840) was one of the most enterprising printers of his age. Following an apprenticeship to a Coventry printer and bookseller, he set up a small business just off Fleet Street. His chief innovation was the production of handy editions of famous authors. In 1809 he moved his business to Chiswick, where he used old ropes from the dockyards to extract the tar for ink and pulp for paper. Under the Chiswick imprint he specialised in illustrated books.

The present set is the first edition of the Chiswick/Whittingham Shakespeare, complete in 7 volumes, Vol. I including John Britton’s ‘Remarks on the Life and Writings of William Shakspeare [sic]’ and Samuel Johnson’s 1765 ‘Preface’. The set boasts ‘Two Hundred and Thirty Embellishments’, these taking the form of attractive vignettes to the volume title-pages, titles of each play, and each act. Volume I with additional frontispiece showing Shakespeare’s birthplace, and a vignette of a bust of Shakespeare opposite the first page of Britton’s ‘Remarks’. Vol. VII with an unpaginated ‘Glossarial Index’, and 4 unpaginated leaves of adverts for Whittingham’s Chiswick Press.

Lady Sophia Kent, née Lygon (1789–1834) was the daughter of William Lygon, 1st Earl Beauchamp, and wife of Sir Charles Egleton Kent, 2nd Baronet. These volumes evidently predate her marriage, which took place in 1818. A bust of Lady Sophia Kent was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818 but its subsequent history is unknown.

The contents are as follows:

Vol. I: The Tempest; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Merry Wives of Windsor; Twelfth Night; Measure for Measure
Vol. II: Much Ado about Nothing; Midsummer Night’s Dream; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Merchant of Venice; As You Like It; All’s Well that Ends Well
Vol. III: Taming of the Shrew; Winter’s Tale; Comedy of Errors; Macbeth; King John; King Richard II
Vol. IV: King Henry IV Parts I and II; King Henry V; King Henry VI Parts I and II
Vol. V: King Henry VI Part III; King Richard III; King Henry VIII; Troilus and Cressida; Timon of Athens
Vol. VI: Coriolanus; Julius Caesar; Antony and Cleopatra; Cymbeline; Titus Andronicus
Vol. VII: Pericles; King Lear; Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet; Othello

The set is in excellent condition: attractive contemporary half-leather binding, with gilt spine titles and marbled boards; internally very good, noting only some sporadic pencil markings, a somewhat loose leaf to the rear of Vol. II, and the fact that the trimming affects some examples of Sophia Lygon’s signature. Scarce: COPAC records only 7 institutional holdings for this first Chiswick/Whittingham Shakespeare. Note that some supposed first editions are in fact mixed editions; each play has a separate title-page and these should all, as here, be dated 1813.