Venus and Adonis, seventh edition

The seventh edition of Shakespeare's popular narrative poem Venus and Adonis, possibly printed in 1602, survives in only one copy at the Bodleian Library. The original title page is lacking, and has been replaced with a manuscript title page that includes, like earlier editions, the poem’s title and a Latin motto from Ovid’s Amores, as well as an incorrect imprint: “LONDON. Printed by I.H. for Iohn Harison. 1600.” This handwritten imprint was most likely copied from the printed imprint of another poem bound into the same volume, the fourth quarto of Shakespeare’s Lucrece (1600). Pasted to the top of the title page is a printer’s ornament.

Presumably, this edition was actually published by William Leake, who acquired the rights to Venus and Adonis from John Harrison on June 25, 1596. The tail-piece ornament and type used throughout this edition show that, like the sixth edition, it was printed by Richard Braddock.

Although Shakespeare is now known primarily as a playwright, in his own time he was equally revered as the author of Venus and Adonis, first printed in 1593, and Lucrece, his two sensationally successful Ovidian narrative poems. Venus and Adonis appeared in more printed editions than any other work of vernacular poetry in his lifetime, and was published twice as many times as his most successful play, Henry IV Part 1. 

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