William Shakspere / Knight - A Biography - 1865

TREASURES, RELICS AND SHEDS OF THE BARD: A VICTORIAN BIOGRAPHY THAT TRACKS THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH
Elegant nineteenth-century edition of the renowned biography of William Shakespeare by Charles Knight, one of the leading popularizers and Shakespearean scholars of the Victorian era. The work represents one of the most ambitious nineteenth-century attempts to reconstruct the life of the dramatist through documents, testimonies, places, relics, and local traditions. Richly illustrated with in-text engravings and plates devoted to portraits, autographs, seals, dwellings, and figures connected with the poet’s life, it stands as a significant testimony to the birth of the modern Shakespearean cult. The copy preserves a refined nineteenth-century English binding in green levant with raised bands, marbled paper, and is from the George Amritage library.
MARKET VALUE
The illustrated nineteenth-century editions dedicated to Shakespeare enjoy a steady market among collectors of English literature, theater history, and Shakespearean iconography. Complete copies with the illustrations and preserved in elegant period bindings are typically found between €300 and €400, while particularly pristine copies with documented provenance or prestigious bindings can command higher values. Collectors’ interest stems mainly from the iconographic apparatus and the work’s role in shaping modern Shakespearean historiography.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Nineteenth-century binding in green levant with raised bands, gilt-tooled spine, boards covered in multicolored marbled paper, and gilt edges. Paper ex-libris “George Amritage” applied to the front endpaper. Numerous engravings in the text depicting portraits, monuments, documents, and Shakespearean memories. Some physiological foxing and marginal halos; some signs of wear at the margins of the binding and abrasions to the hinges. In old books with a multigenerational history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (4); 8vo; 554; (4).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
William Shakspere: A Biography.
London, Virtue & Co., City Road and Ivy Lane, 1865.
Knight, Charles.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Charles Knight (1791–1873) was one of the principal promoters of Shakespeare’s cultural rediscovery in Victorian England. This monumental biography goes beyond narrating the poet’s life, collecting an extraordinary amount of documentary, topographical, and iconographic material. The engravings depict Stratford-upon-Avon, funerary monuments, autographs, seals, contemporary figures, and places connected with the London stage career. The work reflects the historical moment when Shakespeare becomes not only a author but a true national British icon. Of particular interest are the reproductions of the seals and signatures attributed to the poet, evidencing the nineteenth-century focus on documentary relics and the construction of the Shakespearean myth.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Charles Knight (1791–1873) was a British editor, historian, and popularizer. He collaborated on numerous editorial initiatives aimed at disseminating culture to the general public and devoted much of his work to Shakespearean studies. His editions and biographies contributed decisively to the popular knowledge of Shakespeare’s works and life in the Victorian era.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Published in 1865, this important biography of Shakespeare represents one of Charles Knight’s more mature works, a central figure in Victorian literary popularization. The work sits within the vast cultural movement of the nineteenth century that transformed Shakespeare from a theater author into a symbol of English national identity. Virtue & Co.’s editions, characterized by rich illustrative material and notable typographic quality, were intended for an educated, bourgeois audience, contributing to the diffusion of the modern image of the Bard.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
WorldCat, records of the various editions of Charles Knight, William Shakspere: A Biography.
ODNB – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry on Charles Knight.
DNB – Dictionary of National Biography, entry “Knight, Charles.”
Lowndes, Bibliographer’s Manual of English Literature, sections on Shakespeare and Charles Knight.
Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, II, pp. 1031–1034.
Catalogue of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Library, sections on nineteenth-century Shakespeare biographies.
Library of Congress Catalogue, records of Virtue & Co. editions.
British Library Integrated Catalogue, editions by Charles Knight dedicated to Shakespeare.