Lucrece, second edition

The second edition of Lucrece, like the first, was published by John Harrison, but was printed by Peter Short. This edition and subsequent editions of the poem are imposed—that is, type-set and printed—in octavo rather than in quarto, perhaps so readers could bind their copies with other short poetic pamphlets like Venus and Adonis.

Lucrece, first printed in 1594, would eventually reach an eighth edition before 1640, a number that equals Shakespeare's most popular play, Henry IV Part 1. Although Shakespeare is now known primarily as a playwright, in his own time he was equally revered as the author of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, his two sensationally successful Ovidian narrative poems.

Only two copies of this edition are known to survive, according to the English Short Title Catalogue. This copy shown here is held in the Wren Library at Trinity College, and is bound with a 1563 copy of Barnabe Googe’s Eglogs. The only other extant copy is held less than a mile away in the Cambridge University Library.

To learn more about the plot and early printing history of Lucrece, please visit the Folger Shakespeare Librarys's Shakespeare's Works; to read a modernized edition of the poem, see the Folger Shakespeare edition.