A Tall and Textually Complete Copy of the Fourth Folio

This is a notably tall copy at 14½ inches—surpassing both Pforzheimer examples (910 and 911)—with the usual pagination errors. Edited by Shakespeare’s fellow actors and First Folio editors John Heminge and Henry Condell, the Fourth Folio also includes the seven additional plays introduced in the 1664 Third Folio by publisher Philip Chetwin—though his name is omitted from this variant title-page, as is common and without priority. Of these seven plays, only Pericles retains any serious attribution to Shakespeare today.

A good copy, structurally sound and legible throughout. The Droeshout portrait has been neatly repaired at the inner margin, with one small repaired tear passing about 1 cm into the hatched area.

An additional 17th-century engraved portrait of Shakespeare—taken from a copy of the 1640 Poems—has been mounted on the front pastedown by a previous owner.

Bibliographic and Editorial Context:

The Fourth Folio, published more than two decades after its predecessor, emerged at a moment of renewed interest in Shakespeare’s works during the Restoration. It marked the first collected edition of Shakespeare printed in an enlarged and more refined format. The text was set on larger paper, with a larger typeface and more generous spacing, designed to reduce the physical bulk of the volume while enhancing its legibility and visual presence.

Throughout the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Fourth Folio was considered the most authoritative version of Shakespeare’s works. Its editorial revisions and elegant presentation made it the favored edition among readers, editors, and collectors. It was not until the mid-18th century, with the critical interventions of Samuel Johnson and Edward Capell, that the primacy of the First Folio was firmly reasserted.

While the First Folio rightly commands the highest reverence—“incomparably the most important work in the English language,” as Pforzheimer puts it—the Fourth Folio occupies a significant and enduring place in the lineage. It represents the final early iteration of the collected plays and was the edition used by Nicholas Rowe for his 1709 Works, the first truly modernized Shakespeare.

Condition details:

Frontispiece skillfully repaired at inner margin; small repaired tear (approx. 1 cm) enters the hatched area of the engraving.

Title-page with repaired tears, two small lacunae filled in; some repairs pass through lettering but without loss.

Paper flaw in Bbb1, resulting in the loss of seven letters on the recto and several more on the verso.

Water-staining visible in the inner margins at the beginning of the text, diminishing until absent by gathering E; additional intermittent water-staining in the lower margins throughout.

Final leaf mounted and defective at head and foot, but without loss of text.

Minor worming in the fore-margin of the third pagination sequence, not affecting text.

Scattered ink splashes, small rust holes, and occasional abrasions.

Tear in lower margin of Bbb6 with loss to blank area only; similar tear to Kkk4 enters the text but without loss.

References:

Bartlett 123; Gregg III, p. 1119; Jaggard p. 497; Pforzheimer 910; Wing S2915. See also Printing and the Mind of Man for the First Folio.