Quote by William Shakespeare

This volume presents the complete poetical writings attributed to William Shakespeare, comprising his narrative poems and sonnets. The collection includes "Venus and Adonis," "The Rape of Lucrece," "The Passionate Pilgrim," "The Phoenix and the Turtle," and the 154 sonnets that constitute one of the most significant achievements in English lyric poetry. The edition is supplemented with a life of Shakespeare, offering contemporary or near-contemporary biographical material about the playwright and poet. The publication is distinguished by its inclusion of superb engravings, among which is a portrait, suggesting an effort to provide visual accompaniment and dignified presentation appropriate to the author's literary stature. Such embellished editions were common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when collected works of canonical authors were frequently issued with illustrative apparatus and biographical prefaces aimed at establishing textual authority and reader accessibility. more