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THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE
THE LARGER TEMPLE SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare, edited by Israel Gollancz
J. M. Dent & Co., London, 1899–1900
Complete in 12 volumes
A magnificent complete twelve-volume set of The Larger Temple Shakespeare, the substantial octavo edition of J. M. Dent’s celebrated Temple Shakespeare, edited by the distinguished Shakespearean scholar Israel Gollancz.
RARE GREEN HALF CALF LEATHER BINDING WITH MARBLED ENDPAPERS
One of the most attractive and visually ambitious Shakespeare editions produced by Dent at the height of the late-Victorian book arts movement.
Particularly desirable FIRST issue
The 1899–1900 Larger Temple Shakespeare is the original first issue of the series. Later editions were also produced.
Extraordinary illustrations
The illustrative program is one of the great attractions of the set. The volumes contain numerous illustrations both as full-page plates and within the text, including antiquarian images and material relating to Shakespeare's period.
Particularly noteworthy features include:
- The famous “newly discovered” portrait of Shakespeare, reproduced in the edition in connection with the portrait presented to the Shakespeare Memorial Museum at Stratford-upon-Avon by Mrs. Charles Flower.
- A folding view of London in Shakespeare's time, providing a remarkable visual reconstruction of the city in which Shakespeare lived and worked.
- A facsimile of the title page and preliminary material of the First Folio.
- Numerous portraits, historical images, antiquarian objects, maps, and other illustrations.
- Extensive illustrative material accompanying the glossaries and notes.
The second photograph accompanying this listing shows the striking color reproduction of the Shakespeare portrait included in the first volume. Its presence is particularly characteristic of the historical and antiquarian approach that distinguishes this edition.
The volumes are printed in the characteristic black and red typography associated with the Temple Shakespeare, giving the pages a particularly handsome late-Victorian appearance.
An expansive and collectible edition, combining a carefully edited text with an extraordinary program of antiquarian and topographical illustration. The set is particularly notable for its use of historical images, facsimiles, maps, portraits, decorative material, and other visual evidence intended to illuminate Shakespeare's world.
Israel Gollancz (1863/64–1930) was one of the leading Shakespeare and early-English-literature scholars of his generation and was closely associated with Dent's Temple Shakespeare series. For this edition, Gollancz used the Cambridge Shakespeare text, while introducing a small number of carefully noted textual changes. Each play is accompanied by a glossary and supplementary notes.
The intention was not merely to reproduce Shakespeare's texts but to place them within their historical and material environment. Gollancz drew upon old books, broadsides, antiquarian objects, maps, portraits, and other contemporary or near-contemporary sources. The result is an edition that functions simultaneously as a complete Shakespeare and as an illustrated cultural history of the Elizabethan and Jacobean world.
Complete twelve-volume contents
The set contains Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic works together with Gollancz's biographical and editorial material:
Volume I: The Tempest; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Measure for Measure
Volume II: The Comedy of Errors; Much Ado About Nothing; Love's Labour's Lost; A Midsummer Night's Dream
Volume III: The Merchant of Venice; As You Like It; The Taming of the Shrew; All's Well That Ends Well
Volume IV: Twelfth Night; The Winter's Tale; Cymbeline
Volume V: King John; Richard II; Henry IV, Part I
Volume VI: Henry IV, Part II; Henry V; Henry VI, Part I
Volume VII: Henry VI, Parts II and III; Richard III
Volume VIII: Henry VIII; Troilus and Cressida; Coriolanus
Volume IX: Titus Andronicus; Romeo and Juliet; Timon of Athens; Julius Caesar
Volume X: Macbeth; Hamlet; King Lear
Volume XI: Othello; Antony and Cleopatra; Pericles
Volume XII: Life of Shakespeare; Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece; Sonnets and related poems.
Thus the set is not simply a selection of plays but a complete Shakespeare library in twelve substantial volumes, including the major poems and sonnets and a biography of Shakespeare.
Israel Gollancz and the Temple Shakespeare
Gollancz's editorial work is central to the character of this set. His Temple Shakespeare became one of the most influential Shakespeare editions of its period, and the Larger Temple format allowed the editorial and illustrative concept to be developed on a much grander scale.
The books belong to the remarkable period around the turn of the twentieth century when publishers such as J. M. Dent were attempting to combine serious scholarship, beautiful typography, historical illustration, and affordable literary editions. The result is an unusually successful meeting of Shakespearean scholarship and Victorian book design.
For collectors, the appeal therefore lies in several directions simultaneously: Shakespeare, Victorian publishing, the history of book illustration, the Arts and Crafts-era revival of historical typography, and the history of Shakespearean scholarship.
Bibliographical details
Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Israel Gollancz
Title: The Works of Shakespeare
Series: The Larger Temple Shakespeare
Publisher: J. M. Dent & Co.
Place: London
Date: 1899–1900
Format: Octavo
Extent: Complete in 12 volumes
Illustration: Numerous antiquarian and topographical illustrations, portraits, plates, maps, and facsimiles
Text: Based upon the Cambridge Shakespeare, with editorial changes noted by Gollancz
A complete twelve-volume set of this early Larger Temple Shakespeare is an especially handsome way to own Shakespeare: substantial enough to display and study comfortably, richly illustrated, and historically evocative.
A superb collector's set for anyone interested in Shakespeare, Victorian publishing, literary history, antiquarian illustration, or the great illustrated editions of English literature. See photos for condition details. Please ask any questions.
