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Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616) M. William Shake-speare, His True Chronicle History of the Life and Death of King Lear, and his Three Daughters. With the Unfortunat Life of Edgar, Sonne and Heire to the Earle of Glocester, and his Sullen Assumed Humour of Tom of Bedlam.
London: Printed by Jane Bell, and are to be sold at the East-end of Christ-Church, 1655.
Third quarto edition of Shakespeare's King Lear, following editions printed in 1608 and 1619; A-L4; 88 pages; title with paper repairs, first few leaves strengthened along fore-edge margin, browning to contents, some headlines shaved, textually complete, bound in modern boards, ex libris John Brand (1744-1808) A.M. Lincoln College, Oxford (1768); FSA, with his engraved bookplate pasted inside the front board; 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.
Wing S-2957; Bartlett 93; Woodward & McManaway 1126; Greg I 265 (e); ESTC R17679 locating a total of seventeen copies in institutional collections worldwide: seven in the U.K.; ten in the U.S.; rare at auction, the last two sales listed on Rare Book Hub were: Sotheby's London 3 June 1946, and 24-26 April, 1918 during an Anderson Galleries sale of Huntington duplicates.
Jane Bell, widow of Moses Bell, is known to have printed twenty-five books. She was active between 1649 and 1661. A list of her other publications is found in this 1655 edition of King Lear. It is unclear whether she had the legal right to publish this particular work, which has been criticized by scholars for its inaccuracies and typographical errors.
