SHAKESPEARE, William.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Pictorial Edition of the Works. A smartly bound set of early editions. Designed to faithfully depict "'the realities upon which the imagination of the poet must have rested'", Knight's Pictorial Edition of the plays was an "extraordinary achievement" (Young, pp. 24- 30). Charles Knight (1791-1873) was already a Shakespeare lover and bibliophile in his teens, when he owned an imperfect First Folio which he made up by printing the missing pages from a facsimile edition. His first foray into authorship was with this project, which was initially released in parts from 1838 and in book form from 1839. In the crowded 19th-century market of illustrated editions of Shakespeare, this had by far the most engravings. Moreover, Knight consciously rejected illustrations that reflected contemporary stage practice and art, instead choosing to display "'the localities of various scenes... the portraits of real personages of historical plays" and "accurate costume'" (quoted in Young, p. 24). For the notably faithful text, Knight adhered closely to First Folio readings, with occasional consultation of originals from the British Museum. This set belonged to George Henry Batten (1819-1881), with his ownership inscriptions on the verso of the title pages, and five pages of manuscript notes in his hand concerning Shakespeare's work bound into the front of the first volume of the Comedies. Batten served as a schoolmaster in Devon before emigrating to Victoria in 1856, where he involved himself

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