Richard II, fifth edition

Matthew Law published a fifth quarto edition of Richard II in 1615, seven years after the previous edition, this time working with the printer Thomas Purfoot.

Law reused the new title page constructed for the second issue of the previous edition, which advertised “new additions of the Parliament sceane, and the deposing of King Richard,” and the play’s performance “As it hath lately been acted by the Kinges Majesties servants, at the Globe.” Like the two issues of the fourth edition, the fifth edition features a shorter version of the “deposition scene” than would later be printed in the Shakespeare First Folio (1623). Due to its potentially controversial content, the absence of this “deposition scene” in the first three quarto editions has led critics to debate the possible censorship and revision of Shakespeare’s plays.

With its fifth edition, Richard II enters a rather small group of professional early modern plays that were printed as many as five times by 1615. Three were by Shakespeare: Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, and Richard III. The remaining three were all published without an ascribed author: The Spanish Tragedy, If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, and Mucedorus. As with Richard II, Henry IV Part 1 and Richard III were also originally published by Andrew Wise and then later by Matthew Law.

The copy shown above is one of thirteen listed in the English Short Title Catalogue, and is part of the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. It was once owned by the antiquarian and scholar James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps. Inscribed on an endleaf is the note: “Halliwell's Sale 13 June 1859 Lot 339 ... .” It was later purchased by the architect and antiquarian Sir William Tite.

To learn more about this play, see the Folger's page on Richard II, and the British Library’s Shakespeare in Quarto, which also includes information about another copy of this edition.