Parece-me uma forma perfeita de
celebrar este dia mundial do livro – embora para mim todos os dias sejam dia do
livro – o folhear deste precioso catálogo dedicado à obra de William
Shakespeare editado pela Bauman Rare
Books no ano em que se celebra o 450.º aniversário do seu nascimento.
William Shakespeare (Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 de Abril de 1564 — Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 de Abril de
1616) foi um poeta e dramaturgo inglês, considerado por muitos como o maior
escritor do língua inglesa e o mais influente dramaturgo do mundo.
É frequentemente referido como o
poeta nacional da Inglaterra e apelidado de "Bardo
do Avon" (ou simplesmente The
Bard, "O Bardo").
Das suas obras chegaram até aos
dias de hoje 38 peças, 3154 sonetos, 2 longos poemas narrativos e diversos
outros poemas.
As suas peças foram traduzidas
para os principais idiomas do mundo, e são encenadas mais do que as de qualquer
outro dramaturgo (mesmo ainda nos nossos dias)
Muitos de seus textos e temas, especialmente
os do teatro, permaneceram actuais e são repostos com frequência tanto pelo
teatro, televisão, cinema e literatura.
Entre suas obras mais conhecidas
estão Romeu
e Julieta, que se tornou a história de amor por excelência, e Hamlet,
que possui uma das frases mais conhecidas da língua inglesa: To be or not to be: that's the question (Ser ou não ser, eis a questão).
Bauman
Rare Books
Com efeito, a Bauman Rare Books
editou recentemente um catalogo onde reune um excelente conjunto de obras de e
sobre William Shakespeare.
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Deste catálogo destaco apenas este lote pela sua grande
raridade:
3. SHAKESPEARE, William.
The Historie of Henry the Fourth. London, 1639. Slim quarto, early 19th-century three-quarter calf;
custom box.
[$185,000]
An exceptional complete copy of the
extraordinarily rare 1639 Shakespeare quarto edition of Henry IV, Part I. This
is the earliest obtainable quarto edition of one of the greatest and most
important of Shakespeare’s history plays.
Henry IV, Part I, likely written in 1597, is one of
Shakespeare’s greatest and most important history plays, introducing the
memorable characters of Prince Hal, Hotspur and Falstaff—a “veritable monarch
of language” whose very name, Fal/staff, playfully parallels Shake/spear
(Bloom, Shakespeare, 294). “For his
sources Shakespeare consulted the second edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587),
Samuel Daniel’s The Civil Wars (1595),
and an anonymous play, The Famous
Victories of Henry V (1594). In this last source Shakespeare found the name
of Sir John Oldcastle, a Protestant martyr, which he changed to Sir John
Falstaff when Oldcastle’s relatives protested…. Most critics agree that Henry IV, Part I, marks the first totally successful product of
Shakespeare’s mature talent” (Ruoff, 190-1).
Only 17 Shakespeare plays were separately
printed prior to 1640 (the rest appearing only in the First and Second Folio).
Of the plays appearing in quarto editions, Henry IV, Part I was perhaps the
most popular, with nine distinct editions appearing between 1598 and 1700;
there also exists a fragment of four leaves from what is assumed to be the
earliest 1598 printing. This 1639 edition is identified by Bartlett and Pollard
as the eighth edition, the last early (pre-1640) printing of Henry IV, Part I.
In their 1914 census of the Shakespeare quartos, Bartlett and Pollard list only
19 existing copies of this 1639 quarto edition, some defective or restored most
in libraries or institutional collections; their updated 1939 census listed 27
copies. All of the earlier printings are virtually unobtainable, existing in
very small numbers (from as few as three to about a dozen copies), many of
which are imperfect, and nearly all of which are in libraries or institutional
collections. STC 22287. Jaggard, 328. This copy is complete and essentially in excellent
condition; the text is lightly browned, primarily around the edges, with a few
very minor stains and small marginal tears; the early calf is somewhat age-worn
with the front board separating at the joint. The first few pages of text have
a number of corrections in red ink in an 18th-century hand, evidently based upon
readings from the folios. Few Shakespeare quartos remain undiscovered, and of
those that are known, only a handful will ever come onto the market. A superb Shakespeare item of the utmost
rarity and desirability.
The
Shakespeare Standard
Para os mais interessados nos eventos relacionados com este
aniversário proponho a visita a The Shakespeare Standard
Boa leitura tanto do catálogo como de alguns trechos ou de algum
dos livros deste escritor.
Saudações bibliófilas.
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