This re-set edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare contains all the plays and poems; the plays are arranged in the chronological order of their composition, not gathered into comedies, histories and tragedies - the traditional method dating from the first folio.
The text is taken from the Shakespeare Head Press edition edited by Arthur Henry Bullen, and this volume also contains John Aubrey's Brief Life of Shakespeare, a biography of Sir John Gilbert, an account of The Shakespeare Head Press edition, a glossary, and a bibliography.
This volume is illustrated throughout with 500 of Sir John Gilbert's superb woodcuts, engraved by Thomas Dalziel and Edward Dalziel. With his prolific historical paintings, John Gilbert was often referred to as 'The Scott of Painting', although he was equally active as a book illustrator, producing cuts for editions of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Sir Walter Scott, and other writers venerated during the Victorian era, as well as such contemporary and popular writers as Dickens.