Copy-specific notes
| Location | Bodleian Library Arch. G c.8 |
| Author | Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. |
| Title | Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies. : Published according to the true originall copies.. |
| Imprint | London : Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount [at the charges of W. Iaggard, Ed. Blount, I. Smithweeke, and W. Aspley]., 1623.. |
| Description | [18], 303, [1], 46, 49-100, [2], 69-232, [2], 79-80, [26], 76, 79-82, 80-98, [2], 109-156, 257-993 [i.e. 399], [1] p. ; fol. |
| Binding | Late 18th century English gilt tooled calf, with Malone’s monogram on upper and lower boards, gilt tooled spine (rebacked in 1990-1 with much of earlier spine retained); marbled endpapers and paste-downs. |
| Note | The Droeshout portrait is in its earliest state. |
| The prelims are generally set within a frame. | |
| For a full discussion of this copy see West and Rasmussen (2011), 32. | |
| Part of the exhibition: ’The romance of the middle ages’, 28 Jan - 13 May 2012. | |
| Caption: Shakespeare’s As You Like It, from the First Folio edition of his plays. Printed by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, London, 1623. As You Like It reshapes the romance tradition inherited from Lodge’s Rosalynde and, ultimately, Gamelyn, juxtaposing an ‘old’ romance plot of fraternal rivalry and exile with the ‘new’ romance and pastoral atmosphere of the Forest of Arden. The scenes on these pages negotiate that mingled heritage. They include Jaques’ meditation on the seven ages of man; Adam and Orlando, newly acclimatizing to Duke Senior’s gentlemanly court in exile; Duke Frederick and Oliver plotting revenge and usurpation; Orlando’s comic, touching efforts at a new poetry of love; Corin and Touchstone as pastoral philosophers; and as the confused reader of Orlando’s verses, Rosalind: a boy actor playing a young woman masquerading as a man. Gamelyn’s masculine, violent, political story has undergone a sea change here into something rich and strange, if compared with its fourteenth-century origins. (pp. 194–5) | |
| Part of the exhibition: "Magical books: From the Middle ages to Middle-earth, 23 May to 27 Oct. 2013. | |
| Caption: "First Folio Macbeth (1623) Witches were a popular theme in literature when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth early in the reign of James I, himself the author of the anti-occultist Daemonologie (1597) and promulgator of statutes against witchcraft. As James VI of Scotland he had overseen the burning of witches and little trace of the pagan wise-women and herbalists remains in Shakespeare’s ‘secret, black, and midnight hags’ with their maleficent spells and ghastly cauldron contents. In theatrical tradition the play itself is cursed and is seldom referred to by name but euphemistically as ‘the Scottish play’. It was first printed in 1623 in John Heminge and Henry Condell’s Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, otherwise known as the First Folio. (p.131 (Tragedies)) | |
| Part of the exhibition "Shakespeare’s dead" (April - September 2016) | |
| Caption: O Lord, Lord, Lord! (Othello, 5.2.93) There are two texts of Othello, the Quarto of 1622 and the First Folio of 1623. At the fatal moment the texts differ. In the Quarto text Desdemona is given a single extra line: ‘O Lord, Lord, Lord’, immediately after the stage direction, ‘He stifles her’ (‘Smothers her’ in Folio). The effect is threefold. Even as she is being smothered or strangled, Desdemona is crying out in protest and for mercy. She does not go quietly. Desdemona’s words repeat and overlap with the cries of Emilia (‘what ho, my Lord, my Lord’), both statements cueing Othello’s ‘What voice is this?’. Emilia cannot get into the room. Desdemona cannot be heard. The voices interweave in a maelstrom of fear, panic, and mistaken identity. Perhaps Desdemona appeals not to her husband, but to the ‘Lord’. ‘Have you pray’d tonight, Desdemona?’, Othello asked her when she awoke. She has now, and in vain. | |
| Imperfections | Lacks original title-page and frontispiece leaf "To the reader," which is supplied from the 4th ed. The letterpress portion of the title page is an 18th century facsimile |
| MS additions | Bound with 19 leaves of MS and engraved illustrations. Includes a letter regarding bear baiting which reads: ... Edward Allin Esqr master of his maj’s bearegarden hath informed me of the present want of doggs, [u?]ppon any occasion for supply of his Ma[jesty]’s service. ….. Albeit there is sufficient power and authoritie to the said Master by .. of the said commission to execute his office. Yet in regard of sondrie abuses as I am informed offered to the said officers by certain [wicked?] and disobedient persons the execution of his Ma[jesty]’s said service hath been disappointed and the officers of the same much indamaged. This are therefore to will and desire you or any of you to whom it may appertaine to be aydinge, helpinge, and assistinge to them in the execution thereof… from Whithall this 29th of Augs 1619, Pembroke. [see: MSS 2, Article 34, 01 verso: Petition to William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, the Lord Chamberlain, from Edward Alleyn in answer to a petition against him relating to the the baiting of bears, c. 1617-19. http://www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/images/MSS-2/Article-034/01v.html |
| Provenance name | Malone, Edmond, 1741-1812, former owner. |
| Malone, Richard, Lord Sunderlin (1738-1816) | |
| Boswell, James, 1778-1822. | |
| Provenance note | Edmond Malone’s copy, acquired ca. 1780 and presented to the Bodleian Library in 1815 by Malone’s brother, Lord Sunderlin. Some of the material was on extended loan to James Boswell from Malone’s death until its arrival in the Bodleian in 1821. |
| Previous shelfmark | Malone 1. |
| Arch. F c.14 | |
| Size | 351 x 222 mm. |
Bodleian Libraries 2019