SHAKESPEARE, William (1564-1616). A Collection of Poems. viz. I. Venus and Adonis. II. The Rape of Lucrece. III. The Passionate Pilgrim. IV. Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Musick. London: for Bernard Lintott, [1709].

First edition, first issue of the first collection of Shakespeare’s poems to include “Venus and Adonis” and “The Rape of Lucrece.” “The texts are all carefully printed, with a minimum of emendation. What is still more surprising is that the spelling and even the punctuation of the copy texts are reproduced with remarkable fidelity. When the anonymous editor—or perhaps it was the compositor—came on a spelling that looked too archaic and outlandish to be intelligible, he altered it. Occasionally a passage that appeared corrupt was emended, but always conservatively and cautiously. Whatever motives—whatever conscious editorial principles—lay behind this edition, the texts gave the poems to the public in a form little altered from the first editions” (Dawson). The four parts are dated 1630, 1632, 1599 and 1599. The second issue appeared in two volumes with the parts undated and with the addition of 154 sonnets and “A Lovers Complaint” (see following lot). Jaggard p.434. See Giles E. Dawson, Four Centuries of Shakespeare Publication (1964).

Octavo (168 x 100mm). (Faintly browned, some expertly repaired tears principally in lower margin.) Contemporary panelled speckled sheep (rebacked and recornered); housed in red cloth chemise and morocco-backed slipcase. Provenance: unidentified ink stamp on front pastedown – Richard Montgomery Gilchrist Potter (1898-1941; red morocco book label on front pastedown) – Marie Luise Hinrichs (bookplate).