Isaac Reed (1 January 1742 – 5 January 1807) was an English writer and

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

scholar. He is best known for collaborating with

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

and

George Steevens George Steevens (10 May 1736 – 22 January 1800) was an English writer and Shakespearean scholar. He was best known for collaborating with Samuel Johnson and Isaac Reed to produce '' The Plays of Shakespeare with the Corrections and Illustrati ...

to edit ''

The Plays of William Shakespeare ''The Plays of William Shakespeare'' was an 18th-century edition of the Shakespeare's plays, dramatic works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Johnson announced his intention to edit Shakespeare's plays in h ...

'' and publishing a critical edition.

Biography

The son of a baker, he was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He was articled to a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

, and eventually set up as a

conveyancer In most Commonwealth countries, a conveyancer is a specialist lawyer who specialises in the legal aspects of buying and selling real property, or conveyancing. A conveyancer can also be (but need not be) a solicitor, licensed conveyancer, or ...

Staple Inn Staple Inn is a part-Tudor period, Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn street in the City of London, London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the Institute and Faculty ...

, where he had a large practice. His major work was the ''Biographia dramatica'' (2 vols., 1782), a set of biographies of dramatists and a descriptive dictionary of their plays. This book, which was an enlargement of David Erskine Baker's ''Companion to the Playhouse'' (2 vols., 1764), was re-edited (3 vols.) by Stephen Jones in 1811. The original work by Baker had been based on

Gerard Langbaine Gerard Langbaine (15 July 1656 – 23 June 1692) was an English dramatic biographer and critic, best known for his ''An Account of the English Dramatic Poets'' (1691), the earliest work to give biographical and critical information on the playwrig ...

's ''Account of the English Dramatick Poets'' (1691), Giles Jacob's ''Poetical Register'' (1719), Thomas Whincop's ''List of all the Dramatic Authors'' (printed with his tragedy of ''Scanderbeg'', 1747) and the manuscripts of Thomas Coxeter. Reed's ''Notitia dramatica'' (

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, Add MSS 25390–25392), supplementary to the ''Biographia'', was never published. He also revised

Robert Dodsley Robert Dodsley (13 February 1703 – 23 September 1764) was an English bookseller, publisher, poet, playwright, and miscellaneous writer. Life Dodsley was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school. H ...

's ''Collection of Old Plays'' (12 vols., 1780); and re-edited

and

's edition (1773) of Shakespeare. Reed's edition was published in ten volumes (1785), and he gave great assistance to Steevens in his edition (1793). He was Steevens's

literary executor The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film rights, film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially ...

, and in 1803 published another edition (21 vols.) based on Steevens's later collections. This, which is known as the first variorum, was re-issued ten years later. Reed directed the '' European Magazine'' as a proprietor and editor, from 1782 for the duration of his life. After his death, his library of theatrical literature was catalogued for sale as ''Bibliotheca Reediana'' (1807). In 2016, it was announced that a

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

had been discovered in the library of

Mount Stuart House Mount Stuart House, on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, Scotland, is a country house built in the Gothic Revival style and the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Bute. It was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson for the 3rd Marquess in ...

. The book was identified as a working copy once owned by Reed, who had bought it in 1786.

References

Bibliography

* John Nichols ''Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century'' (vol. ii., 1812); *

Edward Dowden Edward Dowden (; 3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet. Biography He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edi ...

, ''Essays, Modern and Elizabethan''.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Isaac 1742 births 1807 deaths English editors