Shakespeare in Quarto now includes copies of every edition of the dramatist’s plays printed in quarto before the theatres closed in 1642. Fourteen editions are not among the British Library’s own collections. Digital images of these have now been provided by the following institutions.
For brief information on many aspects of Shakespeare, in an alphabetical sequence of entries, see:
From the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D. C., USA:
Hamlet. Second quarto, 1604/5. A copy with the titlepage dated 1604.
Henry IV, Part 1. Quarto 0, . The only surviving fragment of this quarto.
Henry V. Second quarto, 1604.
Richard II. Third quarto, 1598.
Richard III. Fifth quarto, 1612. A complete copy of this quarto.
Romeo and Juliet. Fourth quarto variant, . The titlepage includes the words ‘Written by W. Shakespeare’.
Titus Andronicus. First quarto, 1594. The only known copy of the first of Shakespeare’s plays to be printed.
From the Bodleian Library, Oxford:
Henry IV, Part 1. Third quarto, 1604.
Richard II. Fourth quarto variant, 1608. The titlepage has the up-to-date name of Shakespeare’s company the ‘Kings Maiesties seruantes’.
Henry VI, Part 2. First quarto, 1594. The title is given as The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster.
Henry VI, Part 2. Second quarto, 1600. The title is given as The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster.
Henry VI, Part 3. First octavo, 1595. The only known copy of this edition. The title is given as The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York, and the Death of Good King Henrie the Sixt.
From the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh:
Henry IV, Part 2. Quarto a, 1600. A complete copy of this quarto.
From Edinburgh University Library:
Titus Andronicus. Second quarto, 1600.
These additions have been made as part of the Anglo-American project Shakespeare Quartos Archive, which has six partner institutions. The project is led by the Folger Shakespeare Library in the USA and the Bodleian Library, Oxford in the UK. The other partners are the Huntington Library, USA and the British Library, National Library of Scotland and Edinburgh University Library in the UK. It has been jointly funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in the USA and the JISC in the UK.
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