Pericles, third edition

The third edition of Pericles was printed in 1611. It retains certain textual errors introduced in the second edition, indicating that the third edition was based on the previous one. Since the book was printed in two sections (A-C, D-I), Simon Stafford, included on the title page as the printer “S. S.” probably shared the printing with another unidentified printer. Like the first two editions, this one also misidentifies Pericles’s daughter as “Mariana” on the title page.

First published in 1609, Pericles was among the most popular plays in print during the early seventeenth century, with a total of six editions published by 1635. This edition title’s page also includes that the play was written “By William Shakespeare.” Many scholars now believe that Shakespeare co-authored Pericles, most likely with George Wilkins, who wrote a prose romance version of Pericles published in 1608. Like Two Noble Kinsmen, Pericles is notably absent from the First Folio.

The copy shown above is one of four copies of this edition listed in the English Short Title Catalogue; this one is part of the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. Maurice Jonas, a previous owner, pasted two printed bibliographical excerpts about this copy onto the front endleaf. A.S.W. Rosenbach purchased the copy from Marsden J. Perry on July 22, 1919, and Henry Clay Folger purchased it from Rosenbach later that same year.

To learn more about this play, please see the page about Pericles on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Shakespeare's Works and the British Library’s Shakespeare in Quarto, which also includes another copy of this edition.