CYMBELINE. A Tragedy.

A pleasing and early octavo printing. Engraved frontispiece, engraved head-piece and a six-line engraved initial at the beginning of the text Small 8vo, bound in later blue wrappers, hand calligraphed on the cover in brown ink. 96pp. A fine and well preserved copy, the blue wrappers as pristine, some minor mellowing and some minor spotting in places internally.

Edizione: very scarce. from the important theobold oeuvre. although theobold ultimately gave way to johnson in popularity, he remains one of the pre-eminent shakespearean editors. churton collins, writing in the dnb, claimed it “would not be too much to say that the text of shakespeare owes more to theobold than to any other editor.”<br> the collection also draws on two rival editions, j. tonson’s and r. walker’s. although the two are nearly identical, tonson issued an advertisement warning the public against “such useless, pirated, and maim’d editions, as are publish’d by the said r. walker.” <br> cymbeline contains famous quotations among which are:<br><br><br>boldness be my friend:<br>arm me audacity from head to foot!<br>(iachimo, act 1 scene 6)<br><br>the game is up.<br>(belarius, act 3 scene 3)<br><br>i have not slept one wink.<br>(pisanio, act 3 scene 4)<br><br>i see a man’s life is a tedious one.<br>(innogen, act 3 scene 6)<br><br>all gold and silver rather turn to dirt.<br>(arviragus, act 3 scene 6)<br><br>play judge and executioner all himself.<br>(guiderius, act 4 scene 2)