The Works of William Shakespeare

Copies with this title are in the Library of the Duke of Devonshire, and in the Bodleian (Malone, 867). An imperfect copy, wanting the last seven leaves, is in the Capell collection. Another impression bearing the same date, 'Printed by W. W. for Thomas Millington,' is said to exist, but we have been unable to find it. The MS. title quoted by Mr Halliwell from a copy in the Bodleian (Malone, 36) is prefixed to what appears to us unquestionably the same edition as the above. The minute correspondence of misplaced and defective letters between this copy and Capell's, with which, as well as with the other copy in the Bodleian, we have compared it, proves beyond question that all three must have been printed from the same form, and that the MS. title inserted in Malone's copy is out of place. So far therefore from Capell's imperfect copy of this edition being unique, as Mr Halliwell states, there are at least two other perfect copies in existence, besides one which only wants the title-page. In Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual (ed. Bohn, p. 2281), another is said to be in the possession of Mr Tite. The late Mr George Daniel is stated, on the same authority, to have had the editions printed by Valentine Simmes and by W. W. in one volume, but they were not sold at his sale, and we have been unable to trace them.

In 1619, a third edition (Q,) without date, printed by Isaac Jaggard, and including also 'The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York,' appeared with the following title:

The Whole Contention | betweene the two Famous | Houses, LANCASTER and YORKE. With the Tragicall ends of the good Duke | Humfrey, Richard Duke of Yorke, | and King Henrie the| sixt. Diuided into two Parts: And newly corrected and enlarged. Written by William Shakespeare, Gent. | Printed at LONDON, for T. P.

On the title-page of his copy of this edition, Capell has added in MS. the date '1619.-at the same time with the Pericles that follows; as appears by the continuation of the signatures.' The signatures of The Whole Contention' are

from A to Q in fours, while in Pericles, ' Printed for T. P. 1619,' the first page has signature R, which shows that the two must have formed part of the same volume.

'The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York,' which formed the ground-work of The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth, was first printed in small 8vo. in 1595, with the following title:

The true Tragedie of Richard | Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt, with the whole contention betweene the two Houses Lancaster and Yorke, as it was sundrie times | acted by the Right Honoura-ble the Earle of Pem-brooke his seruants. Printed at London by P. S. for Thomas Milling-ton, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder | Saint Peters Church in Cornwal, 1595. |

A unique copy of this edition is in the Bodleian Library (Malone, 876). Although printed in 8vo. we have quoted it as (Q), in order to avoid introducing a new notation.

The second edition (Q) was printed in 1600, with the following title:

The True Tragedie of | Richarde Duke of Yorke, and the death of good | King Henrie the sixt: | With the whole contention betweene the two | Houses, Lancaster and Yorke; as it was sundry times acted by the Right | Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his seruantes. | Printed at London by W. W. for Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peters Church I in Cornewall. 1600. |

Copies of this edition are in the Duke of Devonshire's Library, the Bodleian (Malone, 36), and the British Museum. In Malone's Shakespeare (ed. 1790, Vol. I. Pt. 1. p. 235), among the 'Dramatick Pieces on which plays were formed by Shakespeare,' an edition of The True Tragedy is mentioned, bearing date 1600, V. S. for Thomas Millington,' but in a note to the 'Third Part of King Henry VI.' (Vol. vi. p. 261) he confesses, 'I have never seen the quarto copy of the Second part of The

whole Contention, &c. printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Millington, 1600;' and it is extremely doubtful whether such a one exists. A copy of The True Tragedy, and not, as stated in Bohn's Lowndes, of The First Part of the Contention, printed by W. W. 1600, was sold at Rhodes's sale in 1825 (No. 2113). The only authority therefore for the existence of an edition of The First Part of the Contention, printed by W. W. in 1600, is the MS. title-page of Malone's copy in the Bodleian Library. Capell merely quotes it on the authority of Pope, and all that Pope says in the Table at the end of his first edition, after giving the title of The Whole Contention printed in 1619, is, 'Since Printed under the same Title by W. W. for Tho. Millington, with the true Tragedy of Richard D. of York, and the Death of good King Henry the 6th, acted by the Earl of Pembroke his servants 1600.' This clearly refers to the second Quarto of The True Tragedy, not to that of The First Part of the Contention, and appears to us to be the origin of the error2.

The third edition (Q3) of the True Tragedy formed the second part of The Whole Contention described above. It has no separate title-page, but merely the heading:

We have reprinted the text of The First Part of the Contention and of The True Tragedy from the first edition of each, giving in notes at the foot of the page the various readings of the second and third editions. For this purpose we collated Mr Halliwell's reprint for the Shakespeare Society with the originals in the Bodleian Library. The accuracy of Mr Halli

2 This view is further confirmed by a manuscript note at the back of the titlepage of Steevens's copy of The True Tragedy, ed. 1600, now in the British Museum. It shews that Pope is the only authority for the statement, and is as follows: This is only the third part of K. Henry VI. The second part, according to Pope, was likewise printed in 1600, by W. W. for Thos. Millington. MALONE.'

3 These reprints are in the present edition transferred to Vol. IX.

well's work materially facilitated our labours, and we can only hope that the errors of our own reprint may be as few and as unimportant as those we have discovered in his. For the readings of the second Quartos of The First Part of the Contention and The True Tragedy we collated the copies in the Bodleian and the Duke of Devonshire's Library, using also for the former the imperfect copy in the Capell collection. The readings of The Whole Contention (Q,) have been given from Capell's copy verified by reference to that in the Devonshire Library.

With regard to the authorship of The First Part of the Contention and The True Tragedy, while we cannot agree with Malone on the one hand that they contain nothing of Shakespeare's, nor with Mr Knight on the other that they are entirely his work, there are so many internal proofs of his having had a considerable share in their composition, that, in accordance with our principle, we have reprinted them in a smaller type.

The first edition of KING RICHARD THE THIRD is a Quarto printed in 1597, with the following title-page:

The Tragedy of | King Richard the third. | Containing, | His treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence: the pittiefull murther of his innocent nephewes: | his tyrannicall vsurpation : with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath beene lately Acted by the | Right honourable the Lord Chamber-laine his seruants. | AT LONDON | Printed by Valentine Sims, for Andrew Wise, | dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the Sign of the Angell. | 1597. |

This edition is referred to, in our notes, as Q1•

We have collated a complete copy belonging to the Duke of Devonshire and also an imperfect copy formerly belonging to Malone and now in the Bodleian. Malone had supplied the missing leaves by the insertion of some from the second Quarto*. There is no copy in the Capell collection.

He says in a MS. note: This copy of the original edition of King Richard III. was imperfect, when I purchased it, wanting signat. C 1 and 2, D 4, L 4,

The second edition, also in Quarto, which we call Q,, was published in the following year, with the name of the author. It is in other respects a reprint of the first. The title-page is as follows:

The third Quarto, our Q,, has the following title-page:

THE | TRAGEDIE | of King Richard | the third. | Conteining his treacherous Plots against his brother | Clarence: the pittifull murther of his innocent Ne-phewes: his tyrannicall vsurpation : with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath bene lately Acted by the Right Honourable | the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. | Newly augmented, | By William Shakespeare. | LONDON | Printed by Thomas Creede, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1602.

Notwithstanding the words 'newly augmented,' this edition contains nothing that is not found in the second Quarto, from which it is reprinted, except some additional errors of the

press.

The fourth Quarto, our Q, was printed from the third, by

and M 1, 2, and 3.

These seven leaves I have supplied from a later copy (that of 1598), and have collated with the edition of 1597. The variations are set down in the margin.' He adds: Mr Penn Ashton Curzon and Mr Kemble are possessed of copies of this original edition of this play: I know of no other, except that in this volume.' Mr Kemble's copy is now in the Devonshire Library, and Mr Curzon's is perhaps the same which was sold at Mr Daniel's sale and is now in the possession of Mr Huth. Besides the leaves of Malone's copy which are missing, signatures C 3 and C 4 are imperfect, the upper half of each being supplied from the edition of 1598.

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The Works of William Shakespeare, Volume 5