Beschreibung:

Shakespeare, William Twelfth Night, or What You Will. London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, 1632 Folio (308 x 216 mm). 255-275, [1]pp. Expertly bound to style in paneled calf, covers tooled in blind, upper cover gilt lettered. From Shakespeare's second folio Shakespeare's famed four folios comprise the first four editions of his collected plays, all printed in the 17th century. The second folio of 1632, like the first folio of 1623, contains 36 plays. It is estimated that fewer than 1,000 copies of the second folio were printed and fewer than 200 copies are in existence today. Twelfth Night is a delightfully confusing tale of love, originally believed to have been written for the Twelfth Night festival on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas, around 1601. The play focuses on twins Viola and Sebastian, who, caught in a shipwreck, are separated but survive. Viola, disguised as a man named Cesario, goes on to work for Count Orsino. She falls in love with the count, though he is in love with Countess Olivia and sends Viola/Cesario to court her on his behalf. However, things take a turn when Olivia falls in love with Viola/Cesario instead. When Sebastian returns, the plot thickens as mistaken identities lead to further complications. The Shakespeare Folios have "an aura of book magic about them. For a bibliophile it is a volume devoutly to be wished for and rarely attained; to a library it is a crowning jewel of a collection. Shakespeare, indeed, is a name to conjure with. No lengthy explanations are needed; he is simply the most distinguished author in the English language" (Wolf). REFERENCESTC 22274a; Greg III:1113-1116; Jaggard 496; Pforzheimer 906; Wolf, Legacies of Genuis 36Condition reportCondition as described in catalogue entry. The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The