Isaac Reed (1 January 1742 – 5 January 1807) was an EnglishShakespearean editor.
The son of a baker, he was born inLondon. He was articled to asolicitor, and eventually set up as aconveyancer atStaple Inn, where he had a large practice.[1]
His major work was theBiographia dramatica (2 vols., 1782), a set of biographies of dramatists and a descriptive dictionary of their plays. This book, which was an enlargement ofDavid Erskine Baker'sCompanion to the Playhouse (2 vols., 1764), was re-edited (3 vols.) byStephen Jones in 1811. The original work by Baker had been based onGerard Langbaine'sAccount of the English Dramatick Poets (1691),Giles Jacob'sPoetical Register (1719),Thomas Whincop'sList of all the Dramatic Authors (printed with his tragedy ofScanderbeg, 1747) and the manuscripts ofThomas Coxeter. Reed'sNotitia dramatica (British Library, Add MSS 25390–25392), supplementary to theBiographia, was never published.[1]
He also revisedRobert Dodsley'sCollection of Old Plays (12 vols., 1780); and re-editedSamuel Johnson andGeorge Steevens'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'sliterary executor, 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.[1][2]
Reed directed theEuropean Magazine as a proprietor and editor, from 1782 for the duration of his life.[3][4] After his death, his library of theatrical literature was catalogued for sale asBibliotheca Reediana (1807).[1]
In 2016, it was announced that aShakespeareFirst Folio had been discovered in the library ofMount Stuart House.[5] The book was identified as a working copy once owned by Reed, who had bought it in 1786.[6]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Reed, Isaac".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 973.
