University of Virginia Library

1. Charles Knight, ed. The Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakspere. 8 vols. [1839-43]. Serially issued in 55 parts, 1838-43.

With its hundreds of engravings by W. Harvey, G. F. Sargent, and others this edition surpassed in the extent of its illustration such earlier editions as Boydell's and Valpy's, and was much imitated in succeeding years; moreover, it is textually better than any previous edition. Because of the (often extreme) adherence to the First Folio of 1623 on the part of its editor, the prolific author and publisher Charles Knight (1791-1873), this edition's text restores many correct Folio readings and gets rid of much 18th-century punctuation. The commentary is extensive and intelligent. Many library catalogues, including those of the British Library and the Birmingham Shakespeare Library, make no note of serial publication. The initial catalogue date for the bound sets derives from the "Preface," dated 18 May 1839, to Vol. I of the Histories, the first volume to be published; the closing date comes from the eighth volume to be published, William Shakspere: A Biography, which has a letter-press title page dated 1842 and an engraved one dated 1843. Since, as can be seen from the timetable below, Knight was concurrently publishing separate parts of histories, comedies, and tragedies, the intervening bound volumes appear in apparently random order: Vol. I of the Comedies (1839), Vol. I of the Tragedies (1840), Vol. II of the Histories (1840), Vol. II of the Comedies (1841), Vol. II of the Tragedies (1841; in vols. that include the Poems, 1842), and Doubtful Plays (1843).

Several years ago in a dittoed note distributed to editors of the New Variorum Shakespeare and on file at the Folger Library, T. W. Baldwin attempted to reconstruct the sequence and dates of publication for the separate

parts, using dates of accession jotted in a British Library bound set. On the whole his dating is correct, but there are some errors, and an unbound set of the separately issued parts in their original wrappers, owned by the Folger Library, makes an exact dating a very simple matter. Although there is some inconsistency from one part to another, the title and date for each part (i.e., for each play, since each part contained a whole play) appear printed on the front or back cover and/or announced inside the front cover of the previously published part. Not all these dates specify the first of the month as the date of issue, but Knight himself, in his "Postscript to the Sixth Volume" (Tragedies II), dated 21 December 1841, wrote, "It is now somewhat more than three years since I commenced the publication of 'The Pictorial Edition of Shakspere,' in Monthly Parts; and during that period I have produced a Part on the first day of each month, with one single exception." A "Prospectus" on the back cover of Part 1 predicts 44 parts in 6 volumes (2 vols. of Comedies, 1 of Histories, 2 of Tragedies, and 1 of Poems and Life); by 1 Apr. 1839 (1H4) the prediction had changed to 2 vols. of Histories, 7 vols. in all, and a later decision to publish Doubtful Plays (Tit., Per., TNK, and others) resulted in 8 vols. The "Prospectus" also gives a kind of explanation of the sequence of publication: in order to "exhibit the growth of the Poet's mind," "the Comedies and Tragedies will be published, as nearly as can be ascertained, in the order in which they were written, but in separate classes; and the Histories according to the order of events. Whilst this arrangement is preserved with reference to the completion of the work in volumes, a necessary variety will be offered in the periodical publication of Plays taken from each of the three classes." That sequence is as follows:

• 1838: Pt. 1, Nov., TGV; 2, Dec., Jn.
• 1839: Pt. 3, Jan., Rom.; 4, Feb., LLL; 5, Mar., R2; 6, Apr., 1H4; 7, May, 2H4; 8, June, H5; 9, July, Wiv.; 10, Aug., Ham.; 11, Sept., Err.; 12, Oct., Shr.; 13, Nov., MND; 14, Dec., MV
• 1840: Pt. 15, Jan., Cym.; 16, Feb., Oth.; 17, Mar., Tim.; 18, Apr., Lr.; 19, May, AWW; 20, June, 1H6; 21, July, 2H6; 22, Aug., 3H6; 23, Sept., R3; 24, Oct., H8; 25, Oct., Intro. to Vol. II of Histories (an Essay on 1-3H6 and R3); 26, Nov., Ado; 27, Dec., TN
• 1841: Pt. 28, Jan., AYL, P.S. to TN; 29, Feb., MM; 30, Mar., WT; 31, Apr., Mac.; 32, May, Tmp.; 33, June, Tro.; 34, July, Cor.; 35, Aug., JC; 36, Sept., Ant.; 37, Oct., Poems I (Ven., Luc.); [hiatus, Nov.]; 38, Dec., Poems II (Son.)
• 1842: Pt. 39, Jan., Poems III (LC, PP; Suppl. Notice to Roman Plays); 40, Feb., Tit.; 41, Mar., Per.; 42, Apr., TNK; 43, May, and 44, June, Essay on Plays Ascribed to Sh.; 45-49, July-Nov., Biography; 50, Dec., History of Opinion
• 1843: Pt. 51, Jan., Sh. in Germany, Index; 52, Mar., Biography; 53, May, Biog.; 54-55, July-Aug., Biog.

Incidentally, the Folger holdings reveal that this edition exists in two states. In the first state, that found in the parts in paper wrappers and in some bound sets, the footnotes to the plays are keyed to asterisks, daggers, double daggers, and the like; in the later state found in other bound sets, the notes are identified by a, b, c, etc.