Henry IV Part 2, first edition variant

This is the variant of the first edition of Henry IV, Part 2, printed in 1600 by Valentine Simmes for Andrew Wise and William Aspley, who entered it into the Stationers’ Register on August 23, 1600, along with Much Ado About Nothing. In the first issue, printed earlier in 1600, Act 3 Scene 1 of the play was accidentally omitted; this reissue corrected that mistake.

Both this reissue, like the original printing, lack some of the text that appears in the version of the play that was included in the First Folio. Scholars believe that material was cut from these quarto editions at the behest of the censors, who felt that references to the deposed Richard II were too impolitic in light of the unrest that was stirring in 1600, which eventually lead to the Earl of Essex’s rebellion. However, by 1623, that was in the past, and those speeches were restored (Oxford Companion 193).

The copy shown above is one of twelve recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue. It is one of two owned by the Folger Shakespeare Library, and was acquired through a Sotheby’s auction in March of 1926. Henry Folger’s winning bid on the book was £3900 (he bought several other items, and the final invoice to his buyer was $22,305). This copy once belonged to Sir Thomas Twysden, a prominent English lawyer, justice, and Member of Parliament from the 1640s to the 1670s.

To learn more about the plot and early printing history of Henry IV Part 2, please see the Folger's Shakespeare's Works and the British Library’s Shakespeare in Quarto, which also includes additional copies of this edition.