The Birth of Merlin.... 1662. 4^o. _See_ ROWLEY, William.
The Two Noble Kinsmen.... 1634. _See_ BEAUMONT, Francis, and FLETCHER, John.
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Published according to the True Originall Copies. [Portrait.] _London Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount._ 1623. [Colophon] _Printed at the Charges of W. Iaggard, Ed. Blount, I. Smithweeke and W. Aspley,_ 1623.
Engraved portrait on titlepage, signed Martin Droeshout. Collation: _A_⁶, with titlepage inserted after _A_ 1, 2 leaves unsigned, A-2B⁶2C²a-g⁶2g^3h-x⁴, 2 leaves unsigned, ¶-2¶⁶, 1 leaf signed 3¶, 2a-2f⁶2g²2G⁶2h⁶2k-3b⁶, paged (irregularly and in three portions, beginning respectively on A 1, a 1 and 2a 1, in the last of which the numbering jumps from 156-257). Verses to the reader signed B. I. facing title. Titlepage with portrait. Epistle dedicatory to William Earl of Pembroke and Philip Earl of Montgomery, signed by Iohn Heminge and Henry Condell. Address to the readers, signed by the same. Commendatory verses signed Ben: Ionson and Hugh Holland. Table of contents (which omits ‘Troilus and Cressida’). More commendatory verses signed L. Digges and I. M. List of the principal actors. The three parts, comedies, histories, and tragedies, have separate pagination and signatures. ‘Troilus and Cressida’ which is inserted at the head of the tragedies, is unpaged and occupies sigs. ¶-3¶ and the two unsigned leaves preceding them. The arrangement of the preliminary matter offers some difficulties. The only leaves signed are the third and fourth, _A_ 2 and _A_ 3, containing the epistle dedicatory and the address to the readers. The fifth leaf, containing Jonson’s verses, certainly forms one sheet with _A_ 3; and in the same way the sixth leaf, containing Holland’s verses, certainly forms one sheet with _A_ 2. It is further highly probable that the seventh leaf, containing the table of contents, forms one sheet with the verses signed B. I. _(A_ 1), and that the titlepage is on a single leaf inserted; also that leaves eight and nine, containing the further commendatory verses and the list of actors, form one sheet together. As the present copy shows no trace of ever having been tampered with, the above arrangement is probably original. It should however be noted that in the Chatsworth copy the unsigned sheet here placed after quire _A_ is there bound up in the middle. This may be the correct arrangement, but the copy is not in its original state. In the Grylls copy the preliminary matter has been rearranged. For the irregularities in the making up of the volume and the variations presented by different copies see Mr. Sidney Lee’s Introduction to the Oxford Facsimile. The first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, in which twenty appeared for the first time.