Explore the Sir Nathaniel Curzon of this artwork, Portrait of Anne Hathaway.
This edition originally belonged to Sir Nathaniel Curzon, Baronet, (1636-1719), who married Sarah, daughter of William Penn of Buckinghamshire.  The work was handed down through the family to Curzon's great grandson, the Honourable Robert Curzon (1774-1863).  His name is hand-printed in black ink on the top left of the initial flyleaf, "R. Curzon. 1850", and he wrote as marginalia on the second flyleaf:The manuscript verses on the next page
refer to a drawing of Anne Hathaway which
had been made on the back of the blank 1st
title ----, by my great grandfather Sir Nathaniel
Curzon of Keddlestone.  This drawing was
almost obliterated, and the remains of it are
concealed by mounting the page which was
loose, in the old family copy of this book = = The printed verses are most rare, if not unique
in this form, I have never met with another
specimen, they were intended for the very
rare edition of 1663 printed without the
seven additional plays for Philip Chetwinde
This copy seems to be Chetwinde's edition as
it has the title page, as well as the common
one, and it has the 7 additional plays
added at the end with a separate paginationAs interesting is Curzon’s first attempt at penciling an explanatory note on the first blank recto, presumably made prior to the existing description above.  Apparently, he started too far down the page and his script was too large for the remaining area since he ran out of space before finishing it.  He erased it and started anew on the second flyleaf as reproduced above.  However, a faint impression remains and George M. Friend, writing in 1972, examined the Folio first-hand and made out the following, which interestingly recounts that the image was “faintly traced.”
The manuscript verses on the
first leaf refer to a drawing
which was very faintly traced
on the title, which together
with the first three leaves was
loose, and were all mounted
to preserve them from further
damage.  The first title of
all is of very faint clarity [?]
as is also the leaf of verses
and only occurs in the 1st…[undecipherable text]The "Philip Chetwinde" mentioned was the publisher of the Third Folio. As Curzon notes, the 1664 version of his edition contained seven extra plays, listed on an added title page, not included in earlier editions. The verses referred to are found on the third flyleaf beneath Ben Jonson's verse referencing Martin Droeshout's famous portrait engraving of Shakespeare on the facing page.  Inscribed in ink by Sir Nathaniel, followed by his initials and the year 1708, they are:This figure, that thou there seest put
It was for Shakespear's Consort cut
Wherein the Graver had a strife
With Nature to outdo the Life
O had he Her Complexion shewn
As plain as He's the outline Drawn
The plate, believe me, would surpass
All that was ever made in brass
N.C. 1708These lines are a pastiche of Jonson's poem about the Droeshout portrait, replicating several of its lines verbatim.
pencil Third Folio Ben Jonson Philip Chetwinde Robert Curzon portrait engraving of Shakespeare Droeshout portrait Martin Droeshout Nathaniel Curzon