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William Shakespeare; Alexander Pope : The Works of Shakespear in Six Volumes

Jacob Tonson, London, c. 1723-1725.

Recent full blind-tooled alternating calf panels, speckled calf centerpiece panel encased within marbled calf panel border with blind lines and blind-tooled floral border and blind floral cornerpieces, surrounded by outer speckled calf panel, spine in six compartments of blind-tooled bands and gilt floral motifs, gilt green and red morocco labels on two and four, gilt text on six, edges speckled red, endpapers renewed. , Printed in large font, nicely margined. Some browning and offsetting otherwise a very good set in attractive binding., 4to, P. Volume 1. frontis, title, blank, preface i-xxiv, Account of Shakespear xxv-xli, (1), poem (3), subscriber list (7), title, contents, half-title, 2-563; Volume 2. title, contents, half-title, 4-656; Volume 3. title, contents, half-title, 1-499; Volume 4. title, contents, half-title, 4-547, epilogue (1); Volume 5. title, contents, half-title, 4-599; Volume 6. title, contents, half-title, blank, prologue, 6-591, blank, index (31), blank, table (4). , With frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare (engraved by G. Vertue), volume one title page in red and black inks. Elaborate engraved headpieces, tailpieces and initials throughout., Volume : Six volumes.

Printed in large font, nicely margined.
Alexander Pope is considered one of the greatest English poets of the eighteenth century. Although he had been writing poetry since the age of 12, his first major contribution to the literary world is considered to be An Essay on Criticism, which was published in 1711 when he was 23. This was followed by The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714), his most popular poem; Eloisa to Abelard and Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady (1717); and several shorter works, of which perhaps the best are the epistles to Martha Blount. From 1715 to 1720, he worked on a translation of Homer's Iliad. Encouraged by the very favourable reception of this translation, Pope translated the Odyssey (1725-1726) with William Broome and Elijah Fenton. In this period Pope also brought out an edition of Shakespeare, which silently "regularised" his metre and rewrote his verse in several places. From Pope’s preface: “If ever any author deserved the name of an original, it was Shakespear…The poetry of Shakespear was inspiration indeed: he is not so much an imitator, as an instrument, of nature; and tis not to so just to say that he speaks from her, as that she speaks thro’ him�, Bateson II 300; Jaggard 498

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