Henry IV Part 2, first edition

This is the first edition of Henry IV, Part 2, printed in 1600 by Valentine Simmes for Andrew Wise and William Aspley, who entered it into the Stationers’ Register on August 23, 1600, along with Much Ado About Nothing. This text was probably set from Shakespeare’s own drafts, but accidentally omitted Act 3 Scene 1, which was added back into a reissue of the text later in 1600.

This edition, along with the reissue, lacks some of the text that appears in the version of the play that was included in the First Folio. Scholars believe that material was cut from these quarto editions at the behest of the censors, who felt that references to the deposed Richard II were too impolitic in light of the unrest that was stirring in 1600, which eventually lead to the Earl of Essex’s rebellion. However, by the Folio’s printing in 1623, that was in the past, and those speeches were restored (Oxford Companion 193).

The copy shown here is one of nine recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue. It is part of the Folger Shakespeare Library collection, and was purchased by Henry Folger in October 1922. The noted Philadelphia bookseller Dr. Abraham Rosenbach offered a set of eight Shakespeare quartos to Folger, who countered saying that he already had fine copies of most, but that he would perhaps be willing to take this Henry IV Part 2 off of Rosenbach’s hands, along with a first edition of Lucrece for a mere $40,000. Rosenbach clearly accepted the offer, although the final price of the two quartos is unknown.

To learn more about the plot and early printing history of Henry IV Part 2, please see the Folger Shakespeare Library's Shakespeare's Works and the British Library’s Shakespeare in Quarto, which also includes another copy of this edition.