Shakespeare, William.

8vo (142 x 87mm.), first collected edition, with frontispiece portrait by William Marshall after Droeshout and eight-line inscription, two titles (*1 and A1) both with woodcut printer's device (McKerrow 283), in dark blue crushed morocco by F. Bedford with triple fillet border and frame, cornerpieces with floral sprays and fleur-de-lis, elaborately decorated oval centrepiece, spine gilt in six compartments, board edges with double fillet gilt roll, inside dentelles, edges gilt, in a matching crushed blue morocco box, portrait inlaid, very small repair to M4 not affecting text

Thomas Jefferson McKee, bookplate; his sale, Part 4, Anderson Galleries, 2-3 December 1901, lot 3143; Cortlandt F. Bishop, book-label; Mrs J. Insley Blair, Blairhame book-label

Bartlett 27; Grolier, Langland to Wither 84; Pforzheimer 880; STC 22344

Condition is described in the main body of the catalogue, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

An exceptional copy of the first collection of Shakespeare's shorter non-dramatic poetry. Benson's edition brings together the Sonnets and "A Lover's Complaint", published by Thorpe in 1609, with "The Passionate Pilgrim" and "The Phoenix and the Turtle", elegies and other contemporary poems about Shakespeare by Jonson, Milton, Digges, and others, and a 21-page "Addition of some Excellent Poems, to those precedent, of renowned Shakespeare, by other gentlemen" including Herrick, Strode and Carew.

Benson famously re-organised the sonnets, probably out of concern that an old-fashioned sonnet sequence would not appeal to the generation of the Cavalier Poets. Many are run together to form poems of 28 lines or more, and all are given titles. Benson also made some effort to disguise the homoerotic content of some sonnets, perhaps most strikingly in his changes to Sonnet 101 ("O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends"), which he runs together with Sonnet 100 under the title "An Invocation to his Muse" while he also switches the gender of the pronouns to make the poet's lover female.