- description
- # Macclesfield copy, 1602.
## Overview
This section, titled "Macclesfield copy, 1602.", is a textual document dated 1602. It is part of a larger collection titled "[Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, Sonnets, and Pericles (Facsimile Editions)](arke:01KG6S3KNZT62WVVW4VT384KPF)". The text was extracted from the file "[pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt](arke:01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA)" and is part of the collection "[PDF Workflow Main Test 2026-01-30T00:26:53](arke:01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y)".
## Context
This section details the third surviving copy of the 1602 edition of "Venus and Adonis," which is housed in the library of the Earl of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire. The copy is described as perfect and in excellent condition, bound by Hatton of Manchester. It is believed to have been acquired by the first Earl of Macclesfield in the early 18th century. The text also notes the existence of two other copies of this edition, one represented by a title page in the Bagford collection at the British Museum, and another mentioned in the *Catalogus Bibliothecae Harleianae* from the library of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford. The section is preceded by "[No. XI.](arke:01KG6S4DDRR5KCJ3MRYSRYFEWR)" and followed by "[SEVENTH EDITION, 1617.](arke:01KG6S4DDRMZFAYX7Q7FX012ZZ)".
## Contents
The primary content of this section is the description of the Macclesfield copy of the 1602 edition of "Venus and Adonis." It includes its physical condition, provenance, and dimensions ($5 \frac{1}{3}'' \times 3 \frac{3}{8}''$). The text also references other related materials and historical records, such as the Bodleian copy, the Bagford collection, and the Harley library, to trace the history and distribution of this edition. Footnotes provide additional context and citations related to the text.
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- Macclesfield copy, 1602.
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- text
- Macclesfield copy, 1602.
The third surviving copy of the 1602 edition is in the library of the Earl of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire. It has, like the Bodleian copy, the ‘colon’ title-page. It is a perfect copy in admirable preservation, and has been strongly bound in recent years by Hatton of Manchester. It was probably acquired by the first Earl of Macclesfield, the Lord Chancellor, in the early part of the eighteenth century. The measurements are $ \frac{5}{3}'' \times \frac{3}{8}'' $. There
¹ Macray’s *Annals of the Bodleian*, 1890, p. 90.
² Burton quotes the four lines from memory (ed. Shilleto, vol. iii, p. 79) thus:—‘When *Venus* ran to meet her rose-cheeked *Adonis*, as an elegant Poet of ours sets her out,
> The bushes in the way
> Some catch her [by the] neck, some kiss her face,
> Some twine about her legs to make her stay,
> And all did covet her for to embrace.’
> (ll. 871-4.)
Burton’s allusion to Shakespeare as ‘an elegant Poet of ours’ is curious. He only seems to quote Shakespeare in two other places in his *Anatomy*, once from *Lucrece*, ll. 615-6 (vol. i, p. 91), and once from *Romeo and Juliet* (vol. iii, p. 216). Burton makes several other references to the story of Venus and Adonis, but only as it figures in classical authors.
³ The opening tract, *The Devill of Masson, from the French* (Oxford, 1658), is not of much interest. But the third tract, *Laneham’s Letter*, concerning the Kenilworth Entertainment of 1575, bears, like *Venus and Adonis*, the autograph signature of ‘Robtus Burton’.
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VENUS AND ADONIS 67
SIXTH EDITION, 1602.
are traces of the existence of two other copies of this edition. In the Bagford collection of title-pages at the British Museum, there is a title-page which precisely corresponds with that of Lord Macclesfield’s exemplar. The library of the great Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, which the book-
```
VENUS
AND
ADONIS
```
```
This mitetur vulgus: unim flammi Aprilis
Facula Cestata piena mitiifere aqua.
```
```
I LONDON,
Printed for W.B. 1617.
```
seller Osborne dispersed in the middle years of the eighteenth century, contained very few early editions of Shakespeare’s works, but the *Catalogus Bibliothecae Harleianae* (1743–5) enumerates among them a copy of *Venus and Adonis* dated 1602.
I 2
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68 VENUS AND ADONIS
- title
- Macclesfield copy, 1602.