THE WORKES

London: Will Stansby, 1616; volume II printed for Richard Meighen, and volume III printed for Thomas Walkey, 1640 [but 1641]]. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION of Each of the Three Parts. ("Poetaster" with letterpress issue of the part title; Second Issue of part II with letterpress general title dated 1640; early state of "The Diviell is an Asse" part title. 280 x 175 mm. (11 x 6 7/8"). Parts II and III with contents bound in a variant order, but complete. Three parts bound in two volumes..
HANDSOME SCARLET CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, BY RIVIERE & SON (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with French fillet border, raised bands, spine compartments with large lozenge centerpiece formed by flower and lancet ornaments, curling vines bearing fruit at corners, gilt lettering, turn-ins with ornate gilt floral roll, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Engraved title by William Hole (Pforzheimer's third state) in first volume, with part title to Every Man out of his Humour in woodcut border (Pforzheimer's first state) and part title to Cynthia's Revels with woodcut border. Front pastedowns with engraved bookplate of Doris Benz. Greg III, 1070-73, 1076-78, Pforzheimer 559, 560 (d); STC 14751, 14754; ESTC S111817, S111824. ◆First title leaf (and likely the one beginning volume II) carefully washed, the text perhaps pressed--but crisp in any case--the bottom half of one page soiled, occasional trivial smudges, rust spots, or other negligible imperfections elsewhere, but the text still fine, and IN A GORGEOUS BINDING IN PERFECT CONDITION.

This first collected edition of Jonson's works—and of any collected dramatic works in English—comes in a very beautiful binding and with distinguished provenance. Excepting only Shakespeare, Ben Jonson (1572-1637) was the most important literary figure of his age, and in 1616 (the year Shakespeare died), he became England's first (though unofficial) Poet Laureate. In that same year, he became the first playwright to publish his collected dramatic works when he issued the earlier volume in our set (which was also the first printing of English drama in a folio-size book). The second collection here, printed in two separate volumes but almost always bound as one, appeared after Jonson's death, in 1641. For the 21 years that he lived after Shakespeare, Jonson was the unquestioned ruler in all things literary; unlike Shakespeare (who borrowed heavily), he was a fertile source for memorable plots, and nobody before or after him has ever displayed the fascinating characters of London so vividly on the stage. As Pforzheimer tells us (about the 1616 printing), "Jonson began the preparation of this definitive edition in 1612. He used the quarto texts whenever available, but scrupulously and systematically revised them, cutting out many marginal notes, altering the spelling, typography and punctuation in accordance with a consistent . . . plan introducing considerable editorial matter." The playwright's hands-on approach to the printing of this text established it as the authoritative edition.

As Pforzheimer notes, this work appears with a number of bibliographic variants due to the fact that it was printed and issued over a number of years. Our set collates as in Pforzheimer with the exception of the bound order of the second and third parts. In part II, which begins the second volume here, "The Devil is an Ass" is bound between "Bartholomew Fair" and "The Staple of News," rather than after them. Part III leads off with "The Magnetic Lady," "Tale of a Tub," and "The Sad Shepherd," followed by the "Masques" and the "Diverse Poems." Greg notes that "the volume was printed in three sections, the order of which is not altogether certain and differs in different copies."

The tasteful binding was executed by the preeminent London workshop of Riviere & Son, which supplied discriminating bibliophiles for more than a century. Robert Riviere began as a bookseller and binder in Bath in 1829, then set up shop as a binder in London in 1840; in 1881, he took his grandson Percival Calkin into partnership, at which time the firm became known as Riviere & Son, and the bindery continued to do business until 1939. Our set is in the superior condition typical of the books from the library of Doris Louise Benz (1907-84), who collected fine bindings, the best of the private presses, major English authors, and manuscripts. Dickinson says that because she had acquired things very privately, the book world was shocked at the richness of her collection when it came on the market in 1984. According to the Dartmouth College Library, which was the sole beneficiary of the proceeds from the sale, "Miss Benz was a quiet collector, almost unknown to other collectors and to dealers, except to Col. Marston Drake of the firm of James F. Drake of New York, and to Maggs and Quaritch in London." She wanted her collection broken up and sold so that "others could enjoy the pleasures of identifying, locating, and acquiring books for their own collections," just as she had..