Beschreibung:

Illustrations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manners: with dissertations of the clowns and fools of Shakespeare; On the collection of popular tales entitled Gesta Romanorum; And on the English Morris dance.
London: Longham, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1807. 2 volumes. 8vo (8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches; 210 x 130 mm). Titles in red and black. Plates (1 folding) by J. Berryman and others. Early red straight-grain morocco, tooled in gilt and blind, gilt turn-ins, spine in six compartments with raised bands, silk doublures and endpapers. Red cloth clamshell case. Condition: Some intermittent light spotting, owner’s bookplate on rear endpaper of one volume; mild scuffing to covers. first edition of this scholarly work, embellished with a rare pair of double fore-edge paintings. The subjects of the fore-edges are as follows: Volume I - (first side) a portrait of Shakespeare within a circular frame, Shakespeare's house within a second oval frame, bordered at the top and bottom with panels containing clowns and fools; (second side) Ann Hathaway's cottage within an oval frame plus a portrait of Ann Hathaway. Borders on top and bottom illustrate Morris dancers (a form of folk dancing). Volume II - (first side) a view of a bridge, and the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, within an oval frame, to the right within a circular frame, a portrait of Virgil. The borders illustrate a variety of mufflers worn by characters in the Merry Wives of Windsor; (second side) a colourful view of the Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore with a portrait of Petrarch to the right. Borders with decorative garlands and the fox and grapes from Aesop.