's 'Sonnets' were described as 'serene, clear, and elegantly
plain; such gentle strains as shall re-create and not perplex your brain.
No intricate or cloudy stuff to puzzle intellect. Such as will raise
your admiration to his praise.' A chief point of interest in the volume
of 'Poems' of 1640 is the fact that the 'Sonnets' were printed then in a
different order from that which was followed in the volume of 1609. Thus
the poem numbered lxvii. in the original edition opens the reissue, and
what has been regarded as the crucial poem, beginning

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,

which was in 1609 numbered cxliv., takes the thirty-second place in 1640.
In most cases a more or less fanciful general title is placed in the
second edition at the head of each sonnet, but in a few instances a
single title serves for short sequences of two or three sonnets which are
printed as independent poems continuously without spacing. The poems
drawn from 'The Passionate Pilgrim' are intermingled with the 'Sonnets,'
together with extracts from Thomas Heywood's 'General History of Women,'
although no hint is given that they are not Shakespeare's work. The
edition concludes with three epitaphs on Shakespeare and a short section
entitled 'an addition of some excellent poems to those precedent by other
Gentlemen.' The volume is of great rarity. An exact reprint was
published in 1885.

Quartos of the plays in the poet's lifetime.

Of Shakespeare's plays there were in print in 1616 only sixteen (all in
quarto), or eighteen if we include the 'Contention,' the first draft of
'2 Henry VI' (1594 and 1600), and 'The True Tragedy,' the first draft of
'3 Henry VI' (1595 and 1600). These sixteen quartos were publishers'
ventures, and were undertaken without the co-operation of the author.

Two of the plays, published thus, reached five editions before 1616, viz.
'Richard III' (1597, 1598, 1602, 1605, 1612) and '1 Henry IV' (1598,
1599, 1604, 1608, 1615).

Three reached four editions, viz. 'Richard II' (1597, 1598, 1608
supplying the deposition scene for the first time, 1615); 'Hamlet' (1603
imperfect, 1604, 1605, 1611), and 'Romeo and Juliet' (1597 imperfect,
1599, two in 1609).

Two reached three editions, viz. 'Henry V' (1600 imperfect, 1602, and
1608) and 'Pericles' (two in 1609, 1611).

Four reached two editions, viz. 'Midsummer Night's Dream' (both in 1600);
'Merchant of Venice' (both in 1600); 'Lear' (both in 1608);