THE FIRST PART OF HENRY VI

A pleasing and early octavo printing. Engraved frontispiece, engraved head-piece and a six-line engraved initial at the beginning of the text Small 8vo, bound in later blue wrappers, hand calligraphed on the cover in brown ink. 96pp. A fine and well preserved copy, the blue wrappers as pristine.

Edizione: very scarce. from the important theobold oeuvre. although theobold ultimately gave way to johnson in popularity, he remains one of the pre-eminent shakespearean editors. churton collins, writing in the dnb, claimed it “would not be too much to say that the text of shakespeare owes more to theobold than to any other editor.”<br> the collection also draws on two rival editions, j. tonson’s and r. walker’s. although the two are nearly identical, tonson issued an advertisement warning the public against “such useless, pirated, and maim’d editions, as are publish’d by the said r. walker.” <br> henry vi contains many famous quotations among which are:<br><br><br>my thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel:<br>i know not where i am, nor what i do.<br>(talbot, act 1 scene 5)<br><br>here i prophesy: this brawl today, <br>grown to this faction in the temple garden, <br>shall send, between the red rose and the white, <br>a thousand souls to death and deadly night.<br>(warwick, act 2 scene 4)<br><br>defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.<br>(reignier, act 3 scene 2)<br><br>here on my knee i beg mortality, <br>rather than life preserved with infamy.<br>(john, act 4 scene 5)<br><br>she’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed;<br>she is a woman, therefore to be won.<br>(suffolk, act 5 scene 3)<br><br>to be a queen in bondage is more vile<br>than is a slave in base servility.<br>(margaret, act 5 scene 3)