Two octavo vols. 235; 261pp. Ten engraved plates per volume, each one engraved by William Blake from designs by William Mulready. These depict emblematic scenes from William Shakespeare's most recognizable plays: a donkey-headed Bottom found by the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream; the gathering of the witches in Macbeth; the exhumation of Yorick's skull in Hamlet. Lamb's prose adaptations of the verse dramas use simplified language to appeal to young readers. The edition represents three of England's most notable writers in close quarters, at the extension of their respective powers. Bound in red morocco with gilt tooling and rules, with spines in six compartments showing gilt titling and ornamentation, rolls to dentelles, both ribbon bookmarks intact. Miniscule rubs, red stain - likely offsetting from leather dye - to front pastedown of second volume, else a remarkably fine set. A.e.g.