The Works of Mr. William Shakespear. Volume the Ninth.

London: by J. Tonson in the Strand, J. Knapton and D. Midwinter . . .. Very Good- with no dust jacket. 1714. First Thus. Hardcover. 1/4" missing to leather at head of spine. 1/2" chip to leather at tail of spine. Leather split along 2/3 of rear joint. Spine lettering piece rubbed and worn. Headbands lacking. Small 1/4" loss of leather at tips of corners of boards. Some small abrasions to leather on rear board. Owner's signature scribbled out on title page. Some foxing to preliminary leaves. ; The first duodecimo format printing of Shakespeare's Sonnets. [4], lvi, iv, 41, [5], 45-406 pages + 2 copperplate engravings. Contemporary full calf binding. Gilt borders to boards and gilt tooled decoration to spine. Red leather lettering piece on spine. Page dimensions: 163 x 95mm. Red speckling to page edges. Several woodcut inhabited initials, woodcut headpieces and tailpieces. In 1714 Rowe added Curll's 1710 edition of the poems to his 8 volume edition of Shakespeare to form a 9 volume set. This is Volume Nine only of that set. The Sonnets are presented as "Mr. Shakespear's Miscellany Poems", and are given individual titles e.g. "A Sweet Provocation", "Loss and Gain", "His Heart wounded by her Eye", rather than being numbered as in modern editions. Also includes the long poems "Venus and Adonis", "Tarquin", "Lucrece"; "Critical Remarks on his Poems and Plays"; "An Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progess of the Stage, in Greece, Rome, and England"; "Glossary of the Old Words us'd in these Works". "Curll again provided a matching poems' volume for the 1714 edition, but this time Tonson drew him directly into the project, issuing some copies of the edition with a cancel title page indicating that it was in nine volumes (rather than eight) and including Curll's name in the imprint" - Murphy, page 63. [Bibliographical reference: Murphy, "Shakespeare in Print" 182.] ; 12mo .