Presented by Adam Douglas, Senior Rare Book Specialist at Peter Harrington.
Second folio edition, Todd’s first issue, the edition of which William Prynne complained that it was printed on best crown paper. It is estimated that the original edition was of 1,000 copies, shared between the five publishers listed in the colophon, all of whom were proprietors of rights to one or more of the plays. This copy is one of the copies printed for Robert Allot, who took the lion’s share.
The book is also notable for containing the first appearance in print of John Milton, his lines printed on the Effigies leaf. This copy is Todd’s first issue, with the Effigies leaf in Smith’s state C (initial “S” against a filigreed background). As Todd showed in 1953, copies of the first issue of the Second Folio were printed and sold in the manner stated on the title page in 1632; later issues, although still dated 1632, have the title and conjugate Effigies leaf on thicker paper and were sold by Allot’s successors sometime between 1636 and 1641.
Provenance: a) early pen-trials on blank recto of the To the Reader leaf including the date 1708; some early pen marks to the Effigies leaf recto, not affecting text, at foot of last leaf of text of The Tempest (B4r), including the name Thomas Thorp, and at the end of the Comedies, Z6r, with the names Joanna White and Richard Carrington; b) engraved bookplate of Sir Christopher Willoughby, Bart (1748–1808), perhaps the owner who commissioned the binding. Christopher Willoughby married Martha Evans in 1789, impaling her arms with his, and was created a baronet in 1794. He carried out extensive improvements at his 17th-century manor house, Baldon House, south of Oxford, rebuilding it in the 18th-century style. The house and grounds were considered sufficiently beautiful to be mentioned in 1830 by Thomas Moule in his English Counties Delineated. c) sold at auction, Swann Galleries, 19 May 1977, lot 217, $9,500 hammer, corner of N2 torn off, bought by Dr Kevin Harrington (no relation) of Mill Valley, California; d) restored by James Brockman and sold by Peter Harrington on behalf of Dr Harrington to the present owner in December 2003.
