7 volumes, including the rare 7th volume of Poems. [2], xli, [13], 563; 656; [4], 499; 547, [1]; 599; 591, [1 blank], [36]; xv, [1], iv, lvii, [1], 5-454, [2] pp. Edited by Alexander Pope. General title printed in red and black. Illustrated with two engraved portraits by G. Vertue. (4to) 28x22 cm. (11x8½"), period calf, handsomely rebacked with modern calf, spines tooled & lettered in gilt, raised bands. First Pope Edition and First Quarto Edition.
First edition edited by Alexander Pope, and the first quarto edition of Shakespeare's collected works, including the rare seventh volume of Poems, edited by George Sewell, which is almost always lacking - of the 13 examples of this edition sold at auction since 1975, according to American Book Prices Current, only two had the seventh volume. From Pope's preface: "If ever any author deserved the name of an Original, it was Shakespear...The Poetry of Shakespear was Inspiration indeed: he is not so much an Imitator, as an Instrument, of Nature; and 'tis not so just to say that he speaks from her, as that she speaks thro' him."
Condition:
Minor wear to the period calf covers, minor foxing in some volumes, top page edges darkened, very good.