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~DATE RANGE: 1785-1788 ~Original full brown polished calf, gilt ruling, gilt number, and red gilt label per spine. Gilt decor to board edges. Corners slightly worn and slightly pushed in. 12mos (9 x 14cm). Hinges sound in all vols, endpapers uncracked at gutters. A very few instances of foxing and some age-toning throughout. Old pencil price to blank front endpage of vol. 1. Small loss to fore-edge of p. 109, Measure for Measure (vol. 2), with some loss to text. Tear to bottom corner of p. 69, All''s Well that Ends Well (Vol. 4), with minor loss to text (a few words). Slight creasing to top corners of Timon of Athens, pp. 77-100 (vol. 9). Decorative tailpieces throughout. A complete set of every Shakespeare play ever published by Bell (the 36 plays from the First Folio). With 36 plates (one per play) illustrating characters as played by famous actors of the day, including Sarah Siddons and her brother John Philip Kemble. Each play has brief introductory ''Observations'', attributed to Samuel Johnson or Lewis Theobald. All plays have individual dated title page, register, and pagination. Contents: Vol 1: Tempest (1788), Two Gentlemen of Verona (1786), Merry Wives of Windsor (1785), Much Ado About Nothing (1788) / Vol. 2: Measure for Measure (1785), Comedy of Errors (1785), Love''s Labours Lost (1785), Midsummer Night''s Dream (1785) / Vol. 3:Twelfth Night (1785), The Winter''s Tale (1786), Troilus and Cressida (1785), King John (1786) / Vol. 4: Merchant of Venice (1785), As You Like It (1785), Taming of the Shrew (1785), All''s Well that Ends Well (1786) / Vol. 5: Richard II (1786), Henry IV part 1 (1785), Henry IV part 2 (1785), Henry V (1785) / Vol. 6: Henry VI part 1 (1786), Henry VI part 2 (1786), Henry VI part 3 (1786) / Vol. 7: Richard III (1786), Macbeth (1785), Henry VIII (1786) / Vol. 8: Julius Caesar (1785), Anthony and Cleopatra (1786), Coriolanus (1786) / Vol. 9: King Lear (1785), Cymbeline (1786), Timon of Athens (1785), Titus Andronicus (1785) / Vol. 10: Hamlet (1788), Othello (1785), Romeo and Juliet (1788). Bell''s edition of Shakespeare''s plays, edited by Francis Gentleman from the 1773 edition of Samuel Johnson and George Steevens, was first published in 1773-74. A jobbing actor and writer, Gentleman saw the famous actor David Garrick as ''Shakespeare''s most astute commentator'', and Bell''s Shakespeare was an ''acting edition'', edited by Gentleman with reference to the prompt books then in use at the London theatres royal, with his own adjustments to the text ''in the interests of contemporary standards of sexual, social, and semantic propriety'' (ODNB). Hugely successful, Bell''s edition of Shakespeare was reprinted serially from 1785, with dramatic new illustrations commissioned from young artists including Edward Francis Burney and Johann Heinrich Ramberg. The full 1785 and onwards edition was collected in a 20 volume set including a two volume Prolegomena and further fold-out illustrations and plates, with ''Annotations'' (with separate title pages and pagination) following each play (all absent here). This is a set of the complete plays only, with plates, presumably bound up for an original owner who felt no need to include the Prologomena or Annotations. As such it is an early complete collection of Shakespeare, edited by a devoted disciple of Garrick and with plates depicting prominent actors in the new Romantic style of the 1780s, in generally very good and solid condition, the hinges remarkably sound, making the books usable without danger of damage. ~Robust packaging. All UK parcels tracked, others on request. Size: c. 350pp. per vol.
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