SHAKESPEARE, William.

£975 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Plays. An extra-illustrated set, pairing Chalmers's edition with thirty-seven plates after Henry Fuseli depicting a scene from each play. While Fuseli made his name as the foremost painter of Shakespearean themes, critics argue that "there is more power, movement, and original interpretation in the drawings", and their "enormous vitality... makes his Shakespeare series exhilarating even today" (quoted in Paraiz, p.131).Fuseli (1741-1825) produced nine paintings for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery. When this folded, his main revenue came from illustrations, half of which were commissioned for Alexander Chalmers's Shakespeare, published in 1805. For the greatly revised 1823 edition, Chalmers (1759-1834) reintroduced selected textual variants. His earlier editions had heavily reduced notes and commentary.These plates were issued by Rivington in 1823 as part of their illustrated edition of Chalmers's text.

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