[ARBUTHNOT (George)], editor:

Home Words. Stratford-on-Avon Parish Magazine.

Stratford-on-Avon, Published by J. Morgan.. 1880. BOUND WITH: BULLOCK (Rev. Charles): Home Words for Heart and Hearth. London: "Hand and Heart" Publishing Office, 1880. 2 volumes in 1, with Bullock's journal being the first item in the volume, bound in contemporary blue decorated cloth, block in gilt on front cover; some margins closely shaved it latter item but with no significant loss, binding a little worn and faded, but a good copy with the bookplate of the Oxford scholar and Bodley librarian Paul Morgan (1915 - 2006), on the top margin of the front paste-down end-paper; Morgan spent a large part of his life in Stratford-on-Avon, and the Publishers of the latter item is probably an ancestor, and the ownership inscription, "John Pimms" or possibly "John Simms", from "45 Bull Street / Stratford on Avon", on the verso of the title-page of the first item. George Arbuthnot (1846­1922), Vicar of Holy Trinity, the church of Shakespeare's baptism and burial; his Shakespeare Sermons was published in 1900, but most of his concern here is with parish activities and matters, not to mention the weekly offertory, the contributions to which are often disappointing, e. g., the total amount on one Sunday was "as low as One Shilling and Fourpence." Arbuthnot published several works on Stratford-on-Avon, always emphasizing its role as the birthplace of Shakespeare, and Home Words sheds some light on his other activities. Bullock's much longer periodical is visually more impressive, with a fine engraving of Sir Edward Henry Landseer and another of James Watt studying a steam kettle. The Shakepeare Birthplace Trust has a copy, the only one I have located, of George Arbuthnot's Home Words. Stratford-on-Avon Parish Magazine, and it might have ceased publication, or changed its name, after the first 12 issues, though Arbuthnot records that he was printing between 700 and 900 issues each month. The librarian at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust informs me that the journal did changes it name "a few times," perhaps to avoid confusion with Bullock's journal, e. g. Home Words in 1880 (as above), but Trinity Times 1892, Church Monthly 1892-1906, and Avonside Messenger 1963-68. The association with Shakespeare is tenuous, of course, but Arburthnot was certainly very much a part of the ongoing community interest in Shakespeare and his birthplace. The Bodleian has a copy of Bullock's Home Words for Heart and Hearth for the 1884, while the BL has a set for 1888; and there are copies of 1880 set in in Wakefield Metropolitan District Library, State Library of New South Wales, and National Library of Australia.

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Book number: 8284

Catalogue: Shakespeare

Keywords: Shakespeare periodical

CHEDWORTH (John), Lord:

Notes upon some of the Obscure Passages in Shakespeare's Plays; with Remarks upon the Explanations and Amendments of the Commentators in the Editions of 1785, 1790, 1793.

London: Printed by William Bulmer and Co...., 1805. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 230 x 142 mms., pp. [iv], 375 [376 blank], uncut, original pink boards, paper label on spine; spine very slightly defective, but generally a very good copy. John Howe (1754 - 1804), fourth lord Chedworth, lived in a house owned by the surgeon Thomas Penrice, one of Chedworth's legatees, and who published this book after his death in order to prove his friend's sanity. He was certainly an eccentric, but a devotee of the theatre who left much of his estate to thespians of one kind or another.

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Book number: 7853

Catalogue: Shakespeare

Keywords: Shakespeare scholarship literature

FARQUHAR (George):

The Recruiting Officer. A Comedy. As it is Acted at the Theatres-Royal in Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden, By His Majesty's Servants.

London, Printed for T. Caslon, T. Lowndes, T. Becket and W. Nicoll, 1771. 12mo (in 6s), pp. 72 including half-title, disbound; text foxed, last page soiled. ESTC on-line locates copies at BL, Trinity College Cambridge, Bodleian, Folger, Rice University, University of Texas, and University of Otago.

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Book number: 3722

Catalogue: Shakespeare

Keywords: Shakespeare drama literature

[HEATH (Benjamin)]:

A Revisal of Shakespear's Text, wherein The Alterations introduced into it by the modern Editors and Critics, are particularly considered.

London: Printed for W. Johnson..., 1765. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. xiv, [vi], 573 [574 blank], contemporary calf (worn and rubbed); rear joint cracked, front cover detached, spine creased, ex-library. Not a wonderful copy physically, but it has two other attractive features: one leaf (probably A8) is present both in cancelled and uncancelled state. The cancellandum contains Postscript (recto) and Errata (verso), with the leaf cut from the bottom (and, alas, repaired with tape); this leaf is followed by what appears to be a doubleton with Postscript, 2 pp. contents, and Errata. An undated London Library sticker (with cancellation stamp!) is on the front paste-down end-paper: Life Membership was then available for £26. Heath's work is dedicated to Henry Home, Lord Kames; Heath approves of Theobald's emendations but is rather less enthusiastic about those of Warburton.

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Book number: 2785

Catalogue: Shakespeare

Keywords: Shakespeare prose

SHAKESPEARE. [TAYLOR (Edward)]:

Cursory Remarks on Tragedy, on Shakespear, and on certain French and Italian Poets, principally Tragedians.

London: Printed for W. Owen..., 1774. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. ix [x blank], 242 [243 - 244 adverts], including half-title, 19th century sheepskin, with spine severely wormed, but joints firm; probably a continental binding, to judge from the end-papers. Taylor (?1741 - 1797) is identified as the author of this work in two copies in the BL, with ms. attributions to him on the title-page. The work has also been attributed to William Richardson, Professor of Humanity at Glasgow, and Joseph Ritson. Richardson wrote four books on Shakespeare, and this volume seems unlikely to be by him; the style is certainly different, as is the conduct of the argument. The contemporary name of Susanna Taylor appears on the title-page and has been scored through with the next owner adding his or her name at the top of the title-page; one of these hands has made a few ms. corrections to Taylor's punctuation and capitalization.

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Book number: 4318

Catalogue: Shakespeare

Keywords: Shakespeare aesthetics prose

SHAKESPEARE.

Shakespeare's England. An Account of the Life and Manners of his Age.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962. 2 volumes. Large 8vo, pp. xxiv, 546 [547 printer's imprint, 548 blank]; x [xi abbreviations, xii blank], 610 [611 printer's imprint, 612 blank], frontispiece in each volume, with about 200 illustrations throughout the two volumes, original cloth; a good set with the dust-wrappers, slightly worn, and with the dust-wrapper on volume two having a clean tear from the edge of the spine to the middle of the wrapper.

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Book number: 3715

Catalogue: Shakespeare

Keywords: Shakespeare literature

SHAKESPEARE. PARR (Wolstenholme):

The Story of the Moor of Venice. Translated from the Italian. With Two Essays of Shakespeare, and Preliminary Observations.

London: Printed for T. Cadell, jun. and W. Davies..., 1795. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [iv], 91 [92 blank], including half-title, disbound. With the contemporary autograph "J Hall/ Barlow" on the top margin of the half-title. The Story of the Moor of Venice is translated from the Hecatommithi of Giambattista Giraldi. Parr's two essays are on Coriolanus and, of course, Othello. This was Parr's first publication, and he published two further translations in the 1820s.

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Book number: 4508

Catalogue: Shakespeare

Keywords: Shakespeare literary criticism prose