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Lot 85•
SHAKESPEARE (WILLIAM) AND JOHN FLETCHER The Two Noble Kinsmen Presented at the Blackfriars by the Kings Maiesties Servants, with Great Applause: Written by the memorable worthies of their time Mr. John Fletcher, and Mr. William Shakspeare, FIRST EDITION, Thomas Cotes, for John Waterson, 1634
25 March 2015, 11:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £47,500 inc. premium
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SHAKESPEARE (WILLIAM) AND JOHN FLETCHER
The Two Noble Kinsmen Presented at the Blackfriars by the Kings Maiesties Servants, with Great Applause: Written by the memorable worthies of their time Mr. John Fletcher, and Mr. William Shakspeare, FIRST EDITION, woodcut device on title, woodcut headpiece and opening initial, small rusthole to F6 touching 2 letters, one signature (B3) shaved, very small repairs to blank margin of 5 leaves (including inner margin of title), collector's stamp just touching text on 2 leaves, red crushed morocco gilt by F. Bedford (with neat ink note "The binding cost £1.18.0" on front free endpaper), g.e. [STC 11075; Greg II, 492(a); Pforzheimer 899], small 4to (178 x 128mm.), Thomas Cotes, for John Waterson, 1634
Footnotes
FIRST EDITION, and the only quarto edition, with the attribution on the title to Shakespeare and Fletcher. The play was not included in the first folio, or subsequent Shakespeare folios, but was used as the basis for the text of the 1679 folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher. In 1940 Pforzheimer noted that "scholarship is agreed, that there are two hands in this play and that one is Fletcher's" but that opinion on Shakespeare's involvement was divided. Since then scholars are generally agreed that the work was collaborative with Shakespeare responsible for Act 1, Act 2 scene 1, and Act 5. We have been able to trace only the Roxburghe copy offered at auction since 1987.
Provenance: "Halliwell's Sale. May 1856. Lot 331. William Tite", note on front endpaper, with note in another hand "This binding cost me £1.18.0"; presumably the copy offered in the Tite sale in 1874 (lot 2762, sold to Hazlitt), also in red morocco by Bedford.