The Dramatic Works of Shakespeare, In Six Volumes; With Notes by Joseph Rann

Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1786 - 1793. 6 volumes. Large 8vo, pp. [viii], 628; [iv], 676; [iv], 690 [691 notice to subscribers and Erratum, 692 blank]; [iv], 699 [700 Errata]; [iv], 607 [608 blank]; [iv], 549 [550 blank], contemporary mottled calf, red and black morocco labels; bindings dried and soiled, front cover volume 1 detached, front joint volume 2 holding (just) by two cords, tops and bases of spines chipped. Rann's edition was published by subscription, but there is not list of subscribers printed in any of the volumes. He may also have had some difficulty with the Clarendon Press, whose imprint appears on the title-page of the first four volumes, but not in the last two which are undated but were published in 1793. Although he annotates the texts frequently and often admirably, he never mentions which edition of any play he has chosen for his copy-text. He has accepted some of Theobald's readings, including, for example, the famous textual crux in Henry V, "a Table of green fields." Rann prints Theobald's emendation, but annotates "and a Table of green fields" as "and as green as grass." Quickly's lines - "for his nose was a sharp as a pen" - immediately before the crux could suggest a reference to Falstaff's nose, though why it would be green in death, unless he had developed gangrene or something similar before his death, would still remain unexplained. For the most part, Rann's comments and explanations are perfectly straightforward, but he often bends over backwards to explain that which almost no one could misconstrue. ESTC locates surprisingly few sets: L, BMp, O; CtHT, CSmH, MH-H, KMK, and NIC, but copies in the antiquarian book trade do not seem uncommon.