Richard III, second edition

Richard III was an immediate success in the bookshops of London. Andrew Wise published the first edition in 1597, and copies seem to have sold out very quickly, since he published the play again the next year, in 1598, as shown here.

The second edition was printed by Thomas Creede. Wise seems to have taken an interest in the text of the play, since there are a few corrections, including the addition of two lines missing from the first scene of the play in the previous edition. The most significant change, however, occurs on the title page, where the phrase “By William Shake-speare” was inserted. The addition of Shakespeare’s name to a reprint of a play was rare, and it demonstrates that both Wise and his customers considered Shakespeare’s name to be a desirable—and, more importantly, a profitable commodity. On the stage the play belonged to the actor Richard Burbage, who played the central role, but in print it was now branded as Shakespeare’s.

The copy shown here was once owned by the Shakespearean actor David Garrick, who bequeathed it to the British Museum upon his death in 1779. This copy became part of the British Library's collections under the 1972 British Library Act, and is one of seven known to exist listed in the English Short Title Catalogue. Garrick’s gilded coat of arms is tooled into the front and back cover of the binding.