15 “The Standard For Future Editors And Publishers”: 1785 Edition Of Johnson And Steevens’ Plays Of Shakespeare, Lovely Set In Contemporary Boards 08SHAKESPEARE. The Plays of William Shakespeare. London, 1785. Ten volumes. Octavo, contemporary full tree calf gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, four volumes rebacked with original spines and labels laid down. $9800 Third edition of Johnson and Steevens’ Shakespeare, in handsome contemporary tree calf boards. Samuel Johnson and George Steevens’ edition of Shakespeare “was considered the best edition that had appeared up to that time, and was long regarded as the standard” (Grolier, Shakespeare’s Plays, 19). “This edition, in which were united the native powers of Dr. Johnson with the activity, sagacity, and antiquarian learning of George Steevens, superseded all previous editions and became the standard for future editors and publishers” (Lowndes, 2261). The plays are copiously annotated throughout, with numerous introductory pieces including Johnson’s famous preface. Minor spotting and offsetting, mostly to first and last few leaves. A handsome set. “Those Are Giants; And If Thou Art Afraid, Away With Thee… While I Engage Them In Fierce And Unequal Combat” 09CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de. The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. New York, 1901. Four volumes bound in eight. Octavo, 20th-century three-quarter red morocco gilt. $4500 Limited edition, one of only 100 sets, of this English translation of Cervantes’ masterpiece, finely printed and bound, illustrated with frontispiece portrait and 51 plates after drawings by Cruikshank and Lalauze. “It is interesting to realize that the first modern novel was composed by a sick, aged and impoverished man, who believed that a satirical tale might produce more revenue than the poems and plays that he regarded as his more serious mission. Under the guise of a parody on romances of chivalry, Cervantes created a study of reality and illusion, madness and sanity, that links him with such acute 16th-century students of psychology as Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Shakespeare” (Folger’s Choice 30). This translation by John Ormsby was first published in 1885. Fine condition.
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