The dramatic works of Shakespeare

Authors:William Shakespeare, John Boydell, George Steevens, Josiah Boydell, Robert Smirke, William Hamilton, Richard Westall

Print Book, English, 1802

Edition:View all formats and editions

Publisher: Printed by W. Bulmer & Co., for John and Josiah Boydell, G. and W. Nicol, London, 1802

Physical Description:9 volumes, 96 plates : illustrations ; 47 x 32 cm

OCLC Number / Unique Identifier:1035537235

Contents:

Vol. 1. Prefaces of Pope and Johnson. Tempest. Two gentlemen of Verona. Merry wives of Windsor. Measure for measure

v. 2. Comedy of errors. Much ado about nothing. Love's labour's lost. Midsummer-night's dream

v. 3. Merchant of Venice. As you like it. Taming of the shrew. All's well that ends well

v. 4. Twelfth night. Winter's tale. Macbeth. King John

v. 5. Richard II. Henry IV, pt. 1-2. Henry V

v. 6. Henry VI, pt. 1-3. Richard III

v. 7. Henry VIII. Coriolanus. Julius Caesar. Antony and Cleopatra

v. 8. Timon of Athens. Titus Andronicus. Troilus and Cressida. Cymbeline

v. 9. King Lear. Romeo and Juliet. Hamlet. Othello

Notes:

Originally issued in 18 parts, 1791-1802

No table of contents or list of plates is given, but the plates correspond with the list given in "Boydell's Graphic illustrations of the dramatic works, of Shakespeare", a separate issue of the plates, except that the latter lacks a variation of the first plate in Richard III (Gloster and the princes) while it has in addition (as frontispiece) "Shakspeare nursed by Tragedy and Comedy," a portrait of John Boydell, a variation of Juliet's supposed death, and a second plate in Titus Andronicus (Lavinia pursuing her young nephew, by T. Kirk)

"Boydell's Graphic illustrations &c." must not be confused with their "Collection of prints, from pictures painted for the purpose of illustrating the dramatic works of Shakspeare," London, 1803, two large folios containing larger plates (100, including the portraits of the King and Queen prefixed, and the two title-vignettes) most of which are entirely different from these smaller plates

Plates, dated 1791-1803, are mainly by R. Smirke, W. Hamilton, R. Westall, F. Wheatley, James Northcote, with a few each by Reynolds, Opie, Stothard, and others. Among the engravers who executed the greatest number of plates are James Parker, Anker Smith, and James Heath