“
with which that divine poet has been masked and metamorphosed. we shall find in him new sublimities which we had never tasted
before, and find beauties in our antient poets which are lost to us now . . .
”
In a letter to John Trumbull, dated from Monticello, January 18, 1789, Jefferson enquired if pictures of Newton, Locke, Bacon,
Sydney, Hampden, Shakespear existed, and commented “
Bell’s Shakespeare tells us that the only genuine picture of Shakespeare is in the possession of the earl of Chandos.”
Bell’s Shakespeare, which Jefferson bought from Stockdale in parts and on fine paper during the years 1786 and 1787, is entered
by him in his manuscript catalogue (38 v. p.f.) but was not sold to Congress. [
The set appears among the volumes sold in 1873 from the “petit format” collection at Poplar Forest--
Ed.] Other editions of Shakespeare’s works were purchased by Jefferson from time to time, but were not sold with his library in
1815.
George Steevens, 1736-1800, English author, spent a great part of his life in the systematic study of the works of Shakespeare, and began
with this reprint of twenty quarto editions, which included also the Sonnets. It was through this publication that Steevens
met Samuel Johnson, whose edition of Shakespeare’s works had appeared in the previous year, 1765, and which meeting resulted
in the edition by Johnson and Steevens, first published in 1773. See the next following entry.
[4538]
18
Shakespear by Johnson & Steevens with the supplement.
12. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 150, no. 24, as above.
SHAKESPEARE,
William.
The Plays of William Shakspeare. In Ten Volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various Commentators; to which are added Notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The
Second Edition Revised and Augmented . . .
London: Printed for
C. Bathurst,
W. Strahan [and others]
mdcclxxviii
.--
Supplement to the Edition of Shakspeare’s Plays published in 1778 by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. In
Two Volumes. Containing Additional Observations by Several of the Former Commentators: to which are subjoined the Genuine Poems of the
Same Author, and Seven Plays that have been ascribed to him; With Notes by the Editor and Others . . .
ib.
,
mdcclxxx
. [1778-1780.]
PR2752 .J5 1778
Together 12 vols. 8vo. Portraits, plates. The full title occurs in Volume I only of both the Plays and the Supplement; the
titles in the other volumes indicate the contents of the volume.
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit. I, 548[.]
Jaggard 504.
George Steevens, first published this edition of Shakespeare’s works in 1773. [punct.
sic--
Ed.] The edition was a revision of that of Samuel Johnson, which had appeared in 1765. The edition of 1778 was “revised and augmented”
by Isaac Reed, 1742-1807, who undertook the work at the request of Steevens and which was his first edition.
Edmund Malone, 1741-1812, Irish critic and author, left Ireland in 1777 and settled in London. The edition of Shakespeare’s plays by Steevens,
1778, contains Malone’s Attempt to ascertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakespeare were written. His Supplement of 1780
contains Supplemental Observations on the history of the Elizabethan stage, Shakespeare’s poems, the spurious and doubtful
plays and other matters.
[4539]
19
Dodd’s Beauties of Shakespear.
2. v.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 149, no. 7, as above.
DODD,
William.
The Beauties of Shakespear: Regularly selected from each Play. With a General Index, Digesting them under Proper Heads. Illustrated
with Explanatory Notes, and Similar Passages from Ancient and Modern Authors. By William Dodd, B.A.
