THE SECOND PART OF HENRY VI. With the Death of the Good Duke Humphry. A Tragedy

A pleasing and early octavo printing. Engraved frontispiece, engraved head-piece and a six-line engraved initial at the beginning of the text Small 8vo, bound in later blue wrappers, hand calligraphed on the cover in brown ink. 96pp. A fine and well preserved copy, the blue wrappers as pristine. VERY SCARCE. From the important Theobold oeuvre. Although Theobold ultimately gave way to Johnson in popularity, he remains one of the pre-eminent Shakespearean editors. Churton Collins, writing in the DNB, claimed it "would not be too much to say that the text of Shakespeare owes more to Theobold than to any other editor." The collection also draws on two rival editions, J. Tonson’s and R. Walker’s. Although the two are nearly identical, Tonson issued an advertisement warning the public against "such Useless, Pirated, and Maim’d Editions, as are publish’d by the said R. Walker." Henry VI Part II contains famous quotations among which are:Could I come near your beauty with my nails,I'd set my ten commandments in your face.(Eleanor, Act 1 Scene 3)The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.(Suffolk, Act 3 Scene 1)For where thou art, there is the world itself,With every several pleasure in the world:And where thou art not, desolation.(Suffolk, Act 3 Scene 2)Small things make base men proud.(Suffolk, Act 4 Scene 1)True nobility is exempt from fear.(Suffolk, Act 4 Scene 1)The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.(Dick the butcher, Act 4 Scene 2).…