The first folio edition of Shakespeare was published by J.
Heminge and H. Condell in 1623. A copy of the first folio is
now very valuable. A reprint of the first folio was issued in
1807 in folio. The first photolithographic reproduction was
brought out in 1866. The first folio text is now being
brought out, with a volume to each play, by the T. Y. Crowell
Company of New York.
Four folio editions were brought out in all, the last in
1685.
Of the famous editions may be mentioned Rowe's, the first
octavo, in 1709; Alexander Pope's in 1723; Theobald's in
1733; Warburton's in 1747; Dr. Johnson's in 1765; Malone's,
the first variorum, in ten volumes, in 1790. The first
American edition was issued at Philadelphia in 1795. Among
modern editions may be mentioned Boydell's illustrated
edition in 1802; Charles Knight's popular pictorial edition
in eight volumes in 1838; Halliwell's edition in sixteen
volumes from 1853 to 1865; Dyce's edition in 1857; Richard
Grant White's edition in twelve volumes, published in Boston
(1857-1860).
The most noteworthy edition issued in this country is Dr. H.
H. Furness' variorum edition, begun in Philadelphia in 1873
and still continued by Dr. Furness' son. A volume is devoted
to each play and the various texts as well as the notes and
critical summaries make this the ideal edition for the
scholar. The Cambridge Edition, edited by W. Aldis Wright in
nine octavo volumes, is the standard modern text. This text
is also given in the Temple Edition, so popular with
present-day readers, issued in forty handy sized volumes with
prefaces and glossaries by Israel Gollancz. The expurgated
text edited by W. J. Rolfe has been used generally in
schools, as also the Hudson Shakespeare, edited by Rev. H. N.
Hudson.
The best concordance for many years was that of Mary Cowden
Clarke, first issued in 1844. The concordance by John
Bartlett was published more recently.
The best biography of Shakespeare is by Sydney Lee, in a
single volume, _A Life of Shakespeare_. (New York: The
Macmillan Company.)
Other interesting books that deal with the playwright and his
plays are _Shakespeare's London_, by H. T. Stephenson; _The
Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist_, by George Pierce
Baker; _Shakespeare_, by E. Dowden; _Shakespeare Manual_, by
F. L. Fleay; _The Text of Shakespeare_, by Thomas R.
Lounsbury; _Shakespearean Tragedy_, by A. C. Bradley, and _An
Introduction to Shakespeare_, by H. N. McCracken, F. E.
Pierce and W. H. Durham, of the Department of English
Literature in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale
University. This is the most valuable book for a beginner in
the study of Shakespeare.
A valuable book for the reader who cannot grasp readily the
story of a Shakespeare play is _Stories of Shakespeare's
Comedies_, by H. A. Guerber. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company,
1910.) The best book for the plots is Charles and Mary Lamb's
_Tales from Shakespeare_.
If you are interested in the subject look up these books in
any good library and then decide on the volumes you wish to
buy. Never buy a book without looking it over, unless you
wish to court disappointment.
The Shakespeare-Bacon controversy was first touched upon by
J. C. Hart in _The Romance of Yachting_, issued in New York
in 1848. Seven years later W. H. Smith came out with a work,
_Was Bacon the Author of Shakespeare's Plays?_ In 1857 Delia
Bacon wrote the _Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare
Unfolded_. She created a great furore for a time in England
but interest soon declined. In recent years the principal
defender of the theory that Bacon wrote the plays of
Shakespeare was Ignatius Donnelly of Minneapolis, who wrote
two huge books in which he developed at tedious length what
he claimed was a cipher or cryptogram that he had found in
Shakespeare's plays, but he died before he cleared up the
mystery or gave any adequate proofs.