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 Notes 4 additons to the census of copie 
 
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 Library 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029649054 
 
Notes & Additions to the 
 Census of Copies of the 
 Shakespeare First FoHo 
 
 BY 
 
 SIDNEY LEE 
 
 Reprinted frQm ^^The Library" April, 1906, 
 and revised to 2^th May, 1906 
 
 HENRY FROWDE 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 LONDON, NEW YORK, AND TORONTO 
 
 1906 
 
 ^^ 
 
NOTES AND ADDITIONS TO THE 
 CENSUS OF COPIES OF THE SHAKE- 
 SPEARE FIRST FOLIO. 
 
 HREE and a quarter years ago — in 
 December, 1902 — I published, by 
 way of supplement to the Oxford 
 facsimile of the Shakespeare First 
 Folio, a ' Census ' in which were 
 enumerated all extant copies of the First Folio 
 that were then known to me. Long before my 
 work was published, I had circulated appeals for 
 co-operation wherever there seemed any likelihood 
 that information would be forthcoming. The 
 generous assistance, which was given me both in 
 this country and abroad, enabled my record to reach 
 the large total of one hundred and fifty-eight copies. 
 Whatever the defefts of the research, I may fairly 
 claim to have achieved a greater measure of com- 
 pleteness than had charadlerized earlier explorations 
 in the same field. Some eighty years before, the 
 garrulous bibliographer Thomas Frognall Dibdin 
 declared (in his ' Library Companion ') that no 
 more than twenty-six copies of the volume had 
 
4 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 come under his notice. Thomas Rodd, the chief 
 London bookseller of the first half of last century, 
 claimed (in 1 840) to have compiled a list of eighty 
 copies, but unfortunately he did not print his re- 
 sults, and they have vanished. The bibliographical 
 publisher, Henry George Bohn, in 1863 described 
 somewhat cursorily and confusedly in his new edi- 
 tion of Lowndes' ' Bibliographer's Manual,' thirty- 
 nine copies. In 1 897 contributors to ' Notes and 
 Queries,' under Mr. Holcombe Ingleby's enthusi- 
 astic leadership, enumerated fifty copies.^ It was 
 my fortune to increase that number by as many 
 as one hundred and eight copies, of which none, as 
 far as I know, had been publicly described before. It 
 should be understood that I took account of copies 
 in all conditions of cleanliness and completeness. 
 
 My ' Census ' demonstrated two points, both of , 
 which had long been vaguely suspefted. In the 
 first place, it plainly appeared that, although extant 
 exemplars in a fine state were few, yet perfeft First 
 Folios, far from being ' excessively rare,' were more 
 numerous than perfeft copies of other great books 
 of the same era. In the second place, it became 
 obvious that, as soon as we embodied in one system- 
 atic survey the more or less imperfeft copies of this 
 great colle<5lion of Shakespeare's plays, it was difficult 
 to point to a publication of the early seventeenth 
 century which had more triumphantly faced the 
 
 ' Supplementary efforts to describe copies that had found their 
 way to America did not prove more exhaustive. Mr. Justin Winsor 
 in 1875 gave very careful descriptions of eighteen copies in the 
 United States of America, and in 1888 Mr. W. H. Fleming wrote 
 very fully of thirteen copies in the city of New York, 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 5 
 
 perils of physical decay, and all the wear and tear of 
 handling, to which popular books are always liable. 
 To a large extent it was pioneer work in which 
 I engaged in 1902, and errors and omissions were 
 inevitable. In spite of the unexpedted length to 
 which my list ran, there was no ground for treating 
 it as exhaustive. Within a month of its publication 
 three owners, who had failed to communicate with 
 me earlier, wrote to me of copies which had escaped 
 my observation. Other collectors at later dates 
 gave me similar proofs of the imperfedlions of my 
 record. Although the new information does not 
 materially affeCl any published results, it forms an 
 indispensable supplement to the already printed 
 record. I therefore readily accept the invitation of 
 the editors of ' The Library ' to give their readers 
 some account of the copies, of the existence of which 
 I was ignorant in 1902, and generally to bring my 
 results up to present date. 
 
 II. 
 
 At the outset I take the opportunity of making 
 some minor corrections. I have to confess three 
 errors in my account of copies now in America 
 which already figure in the ' Census.' 
 
 Of these errors I reckon the most important to 
 be that touching the condition of the copy which 
 is now the property of Mrs. Leiter of Washington 
 (No. LIII.).^ I had been informed by a member 
 
 ^ The numbers in roman numerals enclosed in brackets through- 
 out this article, represent the position allotted to the cited copies 
 in my ' Census.' 
 
6 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 of the owner's family that the preliminary leaf, 
 headed ' A catalogve of the seuerall Comedies, 
 Histories, and Tragedies contained in this Volume,' 
 was missing. But a recent examination of the copy 
 by Mr. Hugh Morrison, of the Congress Library at 
 Washington shows that the leaf was present though 
 in an unusual place. The copy ought therefore to be 
 numbered in the class of forty-three perfed: exem- 
 plars instead of in the first division of the second class 
 of eighty imperfedl exemplars, in which to my re- 
 gret I located it.^ It is less important to note that 
 I somewhat depreciated the condition of the First 
 Folio in the Newberry Library at Chicago (No. 
 CXVIL). I inspected that copy on my visit to the 
 library on 4thApril, 1 903, and discovered that several 
 preliminary leaves following the title-page which I 
 had reported, from the information given me by a 
 correspondent, to be in facsimile, were in their 
 original state. My description of the fly-leaf and 
 title-page as modern reproductions was, however, 
 confirmed, and consequently the Newberry copy, 
 although it was entitled to a somewhat higher place 
 than I had bestowed on it, does not merit promotion 
 above the second division of my second class. I had 
 placed it in the third division of that class. If I 
 had unwittingly undervalued the Leiter and the 
 Newberry copies, I fear I had overvalued a third 
 American copy. In the case of the First Folio 
 (No. XXXVIL), which belongs to Mr. J. Pierpont 
 Morgan of New York, much detailed evidence 
 has recently come into my hands to show that I 
 
 ' I have already acknowledged this mistake in the 'Athenaeum * 
 for January 13th of this year. 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 7 
 
 had over-estimated its historic interest. Already 
 I had reason to believe that the book had been per- 
 fected from the somewhat damaged copy, lacking 
 the portrait and title, which had belonged to the 
 late Leonard Lawrie Hartley. But I did not know 
 what I have been lately told on good authority, that 
 the old binding stamped with the arms of Robert 
 Sidney, second Earl of Leicester ( 1 59 5- 1 667), which 
 now distinguishes the book, is a recent substitute, 
 derived from some other ancient tome, for a differ- 
 ent old binding, stamped, it is said, with a bishop's 
 armorial bearings, which covered the volume when 
 Mr. Hartley was its owner. ^ 
 
 Before I deal with the newly-discovered copies, 
 it becomes me to notice such changes as death 
 or some less imperative circumstance has wrought 
 in the ownership of copies which I have already 
 described. At least fifteen of my entries are 
 thereby affedled.^ Five owners, whose names figure 
 
 ' Mr. Henry R, Davis of Thistleton House, Clissold Road, 
 London, who has followed the history of Mr. Morgan's copy very 
 closely, owns the millboards of its original binding, which was, he tells 
 me, stripped off after Mr. James Toovey bought it for ;^250 at the 
 Hartley sale on 19th April, 1887. Owners of the volume preceding 
 Mr. Hartley, whom I overlooked, included Sir John Sebright of 
 Beechwood, Hertfordshire, whose colleftion was dispersed in 1807, 
 and Robert Willis, F.R.S. (1800-1875), the well-known archaeolo- 
 gist and Professor of Mechanics at Cambridge. The copy seems to 
 have been sold by Professor Willis at Hodgson's sale room on 8th 
 April, 1872, for j^20 los,, the smallness of the sum being due to 
 some unjustifiable misconception about a leaf in the middle of 
 the volume. Hartley appears to have been the purchaser on that 
 occasion. The volume is numbered 478 in the sale catalogue of the 
 third portion of the Hartley Library, 1887. 
 
 ^ Happily there is no foundation for the newspaper reports 
 that two of the copies described by me (Nos. CXXXVIII and 
 
8 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 in my ' Census,' have died since the work was 
 printed, viz.: Lord Glanusk (No. LXXVIIL), 
 Lord Leigh (No. LXXXII.),the Rev. Sir Richard 
 Fitzherbert, Bart. (No. LXXVIL), Mr. W. Hughes 
 Hilton of Sale, Cheshire (No. CIX.), and Mr. 
 L. Z. Leiter of Chicago and Washington (No. 
 LIII.). But in all these cases the copies still remain 
 in the hands of the family of the former owner, so 
 that little alteration in my printed text is at present 
 needed. Three copies, which belonged to book- 
 sellers in 1902, viz.: those assigned respeftively in 
 my ' Census ' to Mr. Charles Scribner of New 
 York (No. XIII.); to Mr. William Jaggard of 
 Liverpool (No. CXI.); and to Messrs. Pearson and 
 Co. of London (No. CXLVIII.) are now in private 
 libraries. Messrs. Pearson sold their copy to a New 
 York bookseller who has since died. Seven further 
 copies in private libraries have lately acquired new 
 owners by public or private sale. Of these, one 
 was already in America, and still remains there in 
 different hands; six, which were in England in 
 1902, have since crossed the Atlantic to add bulk and 
 dignity to the growing cohort of American copies. 
 The most interesting of these migrations is that 
 of the First Folio which is numbered X. in the first 
 division of my first class. This Folio was acquired 
 by Mr, Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge of Glasgow 
 in Messrs. Christie's Sale Room, July, 1899, for 
 
 CXLVI), both of which formed part of the Adolph Sutro Library 
 at San Francisco, perished in the earthquake and fire which de- 
 stroyed the greater part of that city in April, 1906. The copy 
 (No. CXXXVII), in the possession of Mrs. William H. Crocker 
 of San Francisco, is, I understand, also unharmed. 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 9 
 
 what was then the record price of £i,yoo. The 
 copy remained in Mr. MacGeorge's library until 
 June, 1905, when it passed into the great Shake- 
 spearean colle6lion of Mr. Marsden J. Perry of 
 Providence, Rhode Island. The transaftion in- 
 cluded the transfer of the Second, Third, and Fourth 
 Folios, as well as the First, and for the four volumes 
 Mr. Perry paid the unheard-of sum of ^10,000. 
 All the books were in good condition. The Second 
 Folio came from the Earl of Orford's library, and 
 was acquired by Mr. MacGeorge for the high 
 price of ,^540 in 1895. It is not easy, in a nego- 
 tiation carried through on such princely terms, to 
 determine the precise value set by Mr. Perry on Mr. 
 MacGeorge's First Folio apart from his later Folios. 
 The record prices hitherto fetched at public sales for 
 each of the four volumes are at present as follows : 
 First Folio. _£■ 1,720 for the Dormer-Hunte- 
 copy (No. XIII.) at Christie's 27th July, 
 
 1 90 1 , (This copy was subsequently acquired 
 by Mr. Charles Scribner of New York, and 
 has since been sold by him at an enhanced 
 price to a private American collector. ) 
 
 Second Folio. £(>9o, at Sotheby's, 21st March, 
 
 1902, for a copy with the rare 'John 
 Smethwick ' imprint. (This was acquired 
 by Mr. Perry of Providence.) 
 
 Third Folio. ^755 for Lieut.-Col. E. G. Hib- 
 bert's copy at Sotheby's, April, 1902. 
 (This exemplar had the two different title- 
 pages dated 1663 and 1664 respedtively.) 
 
 Fourth Folio. £2 1 5 at Sotheby's, 8th December, 
 
 1 903, for a copy with an exceptional imprint. 
 
 A 2 
 
lo ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 Thus at public sales the four Folios in their 
 rarest states have not fetched a larger aggregate sum 
 than ^CS'S^o. Mr. Perry last year trebled that 
 record. We must therefore credit him with hav- 
 ing purchased the MacGeorge First Folio (viewed 
 separately from its three companions) for some 
 gigantic sum not less than ^6,000. This figure is 
 reached by valuing the accompanying Second, 
 Third, and Fourth Folios at three times the highest 
 public sale rate, and then deducting their total from 
 the ;^i 0,000 which Mr. Perry paid Mr. MacGeorge 
 for the four. It is impossible to estimate the cost of 
 Mr. Perry's First Folio at any lower sum. It is 
 familiar knowledge that the First Folio, which Mr. 
 Perry has now secured for ^6,000 or more, was 
 originally bought in 1623 for ;^i. Far greater is 
 the appreciation of the original quarto edition of 
 Shakespeare's ' Titus Andronicus,' which, published 
 in 1594 at sixpence, was sold last year for ^2,000. 
 But, in view of Mr. Perry's great venture, the First 
 Folio bids fair to become the most expensive (ab- 
 solutely) of all printed books. 
 
 I know fewer details respe(5ling the transfer to 
 American owners of five other copies, which stand 
 in my 'Census' of 1902 associated with the name 
 of English owners, but have since been sold to 
 American colle6lors. One of these stood high in 
 the second division of my first class (No. XXIV), 
 and is rich in bibliophilic memories. It is the copy 
 which, when I wrote, was in the fine library of 
 the late Frederick Locker-Lampson, of Rowfant, 
 Sussex. The whole of that colle6tion was sold by 
 the collector's son, Mr. Godfrey Locker-Lampson, 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. ii 
 
 to Messrs. Dodd, Mead and Co., the booksellers of 
 New York, in January, 1905. 
 
 None of the other four recent migrants to 
 America are of first-rate importance. All were 
 placed in the second division of my second class 
 of (imperfedl) copies. Lord Tweedmouth's copy 
 (No. XC.) passed privately to America through 
 Mr. Quaritch some two years ago. The remaining 
 three were disposed of at public auction — two at 
 the same sale to the same American collector. 
 The better of these two belonged to Mr. W. G. Lacy 
 (No. LXXX.),and was sold in June, 1903, for j^385. 
 The Rev. R. H. Roberts' copy (No. LXXXVL), 
 which was issued in reduced facsimile in 1876, was 
 sold on the same occasion for the small sum of 
 ^150. Both these copies were acquired by Mr. 
 H. C. Folger of New York, a cplledlor who has 
 purchased of late years more examples of the 
 volume than any one before him.^ The copy, be- 
 longing in 1902 to Mrs. Charles Hilhouse (No. 
 LXXVIII^.), fetched on 21st March, 1903, at 
 
 ' I failed in 1902 to trace the present owner of two Folios (Nos 
 CXXII. and CXL.), which I noticed as having long been in 
 America in private libraries which had been recently dispersed. 
 Both, I have ascertained since, came into Mr. Folger's possession. 
 But even thus, as the following pages will show, the list of Mr. 
 Folger's purchases of First Folios is far from exhausted. In this con- 
 nexion I ought to mention that the fine Folio (No. XLI.) which 
 was sold at Sotheby's at the dispersal of Lt.-Col. Edward George 
 Hibbert's library on 12th April, 1902, for ^1,050, was not traced in 
 my 'Census' beyond Messrs. Pickering and Chatto's shop in 
 Piccadilly. Mrs. Dean Sage of Albany, New York State, informed 
 me in April, 1903, that her late husband acquired it shortly 
 before his death in the previous year-, and that it remains in her 
 possession. 
 
12 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 Sotheby's, jC3°5; ■'■ °"^y know of its present owner 
 that he is an American citizen. One of the American 
 exemplars which I recorded has changed hands 
 recently at a public sale. On 3rd February of the 
 present year, Mr. Henry Gardner Denny of Roxbury, 
 Boston, U.S.A., sold his set of the four Folios for 
 £i,ygo ($8,950). The purchaser was a colleftor 
 of New York. Mr. Denny's First Folio, (No. 
 CXIX.), which I placed in the third division of 
 my second class, may fairly be reckoned to have 
 brought more than ^1,000. 
 
 III. 
 
 With the copies which have been made known 
 to me since 1902 I break fresher ground. Fourteen 
 copies in all have come within my survey since the 
 ' Census ' was printed. The full total of extant 
 copies known to me, which previously stood at 158, 
 is thereby raised to 172. All save one of these 
 fourteen 'new' copies were in 1902 in the United 
 Kingdom; only one was then in America. But the 
 American demand for First Folios, which has long 
 been the dominant feature in their history, has 
 shown during the last three years no sign of slacken- 
 ing. It will therefore surprise no one to learn that 
 these thirteen English copies are now reduced to 
 eight. Five of them have crossed the ocean during 
 the past three years. 
 
 Information respefting nine of the ' new ' copies 
 was sent to me by their present owners. Of the re- 
 maining * new ' copies five came to light, as far as I was 
 concerned, in Messrs. Sotheby's sale rooms. One of 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 13 
 
 the newly discovered fourteen copies is owned by a 
 public institution, the Society of Antiquaries of 
 Scotland. The thirteen others are, and always have 
 been, in private hands. It is perhaps matter of 
 congratulation that, despite the recent a<flivity of 
 American buyers, the most interesting of recently 
 discovered copies still remain in this country. Only 
 one of the ' new ' copies which have lately found 
 homes in America has any title to be considered of 
 first-class rank. 
 
 I arrange the new copies in order of value and 
 interest, and number them consecutively. 
 
 (I.) Lady Wantage's Copy. The finest of the 
 'new' copies belongs to Lady Wantage of Lockinge 
 House, Berkshire, and I cordially thank her for 
 forwarding the book to my house in order to facili- 
 tate this inquiry. 
 
 The history of the ownership can be traced back 
 to the eighteenth century. At the back of the last 
 leaf is scribbled, in handwriting of that era, the words 
 ' Miss Stodart 1761.' There is another almost con- 
 temporary sign of association with a Scot. On the 
 third leaf (which contains the dedication) is the 
 autograph signature of 'Andrew Wilson, M.D.' 
 He was a Scotsman who practised medicine success- 
 fully in London for many years before his death 
 there on 4th June, 1792. 
 
 The next private owner whose name is ascertain- 
 able is Sir Coutts Trotter, the grandfather of the 
 late Lord Wantage. Sir Coutts, who was a senior 
 partner in Coutts' Bank, and was created a baronet 
 at George IV's coronation (September 4th, 1821), 
 probably acquired his First Folio towards the close 
 
14 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 of his life. Nothing is known of his connedlion 
 with it until the end of 1835. According to some 
 interesting correspondence which is preserved along 
 with the volume, and has been sent to me by Lady 
 Wantage, Sir Coutts at that date lent his copy to 
 a book-loving friend, John Halkett, of Richmond 
 Hill, who, after carefully examining it for himself, 
 obtained a full report of its condition from his 
 friend, John Field, a well-known contemporary col- 
 ledlor of dramatic literature. Field's report, which 
 is dated December 28th, 1835, pronounced the 
 book to be perfedt, with very trifling reservations, 
 which chiefly concerned marginal fraftures. He 
 declared it to be ' a most beautiful copy indeed,' and 
 thought that ' with the exception of two or three 
 copies ' (among which he mentioned the Grenville 
 copy, now in the British Museum), 'this is the 
 finest I ever saw, or I believe in existence.' But 
 it was in damaged binding, and in its existing 
 state was probably not worth, in Field's opinion, 
 more than jr6o. Field recommended that the binder, 
 Charles Lewis, ' the only man to be trusted with 
 such a book,' should be employed to repair it. Sir 
 Coutts Trotter, a few days after he received Field's 
 report from Halkett, begged the latter to keep the 
 book as a mark of his esteem. But Halkett mag- 
 nanimously declined the suggestion, on the just 
 ground that Coutts' descendants a hundred years 
 later would greatly value its possession. The binder, 
 Lewis, died 8th January, 1836, in the course of 
 the discussion. Halkett advised Sir Coutts to send 
 the book for binding to Herring, a binder hardly 
 less famous than Lewis, and to gonsult his friend. 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 15 
 
 Thomas Grenville, the greatest colle<ftor of the day, 
 if he wanted further counsel. But nothing had 
 been done with the book by the date of Sir Coutts' 
 death, ist September, 1837. Then the volume 
 became the property of Sir Coutts' only daughter, 
 Anne, wife of Colonel James Lindsay, a cousin of 
 the Earl of Crawford. In 1864 Lord Lindsay, the 
 eminent bibliophile (afterwards twenty-fifth Earl 
 of Crawford) carefully re-examined the Folio, and 
 sent on August ist a full description of it to Mrs. 
 Lindsay, its owner. He declared the copy to be ' a 
 very fine one, sound, and in good preservation 
 throughout,' in spite of some ' drawbacks,' of which 
 the most important was the removal of most of the 
 blank portions of the fly-leaf containing Ben Jonson's 
 verses. Mrs. Lindsay seems to have left the volume 
 unrepaired to her second son. Colonel Robert James 
 Loyd-Lindsay, who became first Lord Wantage, and 
 whose widow is the present owner. It remained in 
 the condition in which Lord Lindsay saw it in 
 1864, until 1902, when it was elaborately repaired 
 and richly bound in red levant morocco by Messrs. 
 Riviere. A leather case was at the same time made 
 for its safe keeping. 
 
 The measurements, which are 1 2|- x 8^ inches, 
 are highly satisfactory ; the highest dimensions 
 known are 1 3-i- by 8-|- inches. The recent restora- 
 tion mainly affefts the fly-leaf and title-page. The 
 original print of Ben Jonson's verses, save the sub- 
 scribed letters B.I., which were torn off, has been 
 carefully mounted on a new leaf; the missing letters 
 B.I. are supplied in facsimile. The letterpress round 
 the portrait on the title-page has been repaired, but 
 
1 6 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 the impression (from a late state of the plate) is crisp 
 and clear. The last leaf is perfedt, though it shows 
 signs of having been much creased. Several small 
 holes in the margins have been repaired. The 
 pagination, text, and signatures show no variation 
 from the standard collation offered by the majority 
 of extant copies. There are none of the singularities 
 of typography which are occasionally met with. 
 Manuscript notes of the early eighteenth century 
 are scribbled at the end of some of the plays. On 
 the last page of ' Macbeth,' ' Hamlet,' and ' Julius 
 Caesar ' are manuscript lists of the ' dramatis per- 
 sonam' At the end of' Lear ' is a list of chara6lers in 
 the succeeding tragedy of ' Othello,' and at the end 
 of 'Antony and Cleopatra' appear these verses: 
 
 Not the Dark Palace nor the Realms below, 
 
 Or the Furious Purpose of her Soul. 
 
 Bouldly she looks on her superior woe 
 
 Which can nor fear nor Death Controwl. 
 
 She wil not from her fancy'd Pride desend 
 
 Disgrac'd a Female Captive by his side 
 
 His pompous triumph to atend 
 
 She bouldly Runs in Death and bids her Sorrows end. 
 
 Signs are abundant that the se6tion of tragedies 
 in the volume has been at one time or another care- 
 fully studied. Lady Wantage's copy clearly belongs 
 to the second division of my first class of perfedl 
 copies. Had the fly-leaf not suffered injury, it would 
 have merited a place among the fourteen enviable 
 copies of the first division. 
 
 (II.) The Duke of Norfolk's Copy. Hardly 
 less distinguished a place in the second division of 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 17 
 
 the first class is due to the Duke of Norfolk's copy. 
 Former bibliographers have referred to a copy in 
 the possession of the Duke of Norfolk of their day. 
 But when I made inquiries respecting it in 190 1, I 
 was informed that the only early edition of Shake- 
 speare's collefted works then known to be in the 
 Duke's possession was a Third Folio. ^ Shortly after 
 the publication of my ' Census ' the Duke, with great 
 courtesy, informed me that a First Folio had just 
 come to light at Arundel, and more recently he was 
 kind enough to send the copy to the British Museum 
 for my inspedlion. The dimensions are 1 2-f- x 8^ 
 inches. The verses on the fly-leaf have been cut out 
 of the original leaf and inlaid on a new leaf. The 
 outer edge of the title-page has been roughly renewed, 
 and the last two figures of the date, 1623, have been 
 cut away and inserted in facsimile. The corner edge 
 of p. 83 (Histories) has been renewed, and the last 
 leaf has been slightly repaired. Though the size of 
 the copy has been considerably reduced by the 
 binder, the outer edge of p. 79 of the Comedies is 
 rough and uncut. The impression of the portrait is 
 good and clear. The volume is plainly bound in 
 dull purple morocco. 
 
 Inside the cover is pasted the book-plate of 
 Bernard Edward, twelfth Duke of Norfolk (1765- 
 1842); he was a man of some literary tastes, and 
 probably acquired the volume soon after his acces- 
 sion to the title in 18 15. 
 
 This copy has a special claim to notice, in that 
 
 ^ In my ' census ' I gave seven instances (p. 12, note 3) in which 
 a later Folio had been wrongly described as a First, and I mentioned 
 the Duke of Norfolk's Third Folio among these copies. 
 
1 8 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 one of its leaves figures in an unrevised state. It is 
 a leaf in * Hamlet,' ordinarily numbered 277 and 
 278. All who have carefully examined the First 
 Folio are aware that the type was occasionally cor- 
 redled while the sheets were passing through the 
 press. An uncorrected or a partially corre(5led sheet 
 was at times suffered to reach the binder's hands. 
 Consequently minute differences distinguish different 
 copies of the book. In the cited leaf of ' Hamlet ' 
 there appear, in the Duke of Norfolk's copy, at 
 least twelve misprints, which were removed before 
 the majority of extant copies were made up. Among 
 the one hundred and seventy-two extant copies, 
 these twelve misprints only appear, as far as my 
 knowledge goes, in the copy belonging to Mr, 
 Marsden Perry of Providence, U.S.A. But a second 
 copy, formerly in the possession of Thomas Amyot, 
 of which the present whereabouts are unknown, was 
 credited with the like distindlion by the editors of the 
 Variorum Shakespeare of 1821 (vol. xxi, pp. 449- 
 50). Curiously enough a thirteenth misprint 
 (' Foredo ' for ' for do,' p. 278, col. 2, line 3) char- 
 adlerizes those two copies, but this is corrected in the 
 Duke of Norfolk's copy. Hence it is clear that, 
 though leaf 277-8 of the Duke's First Folio repre- 
 sents an early setting of the type, it cannot be 
 reckoned among quite the earliest. The corre6lor 
 of the press had just begun to occupy himself with 
 this leaf before it was printed offfor the Duke's copy.^ 
 The twelve divergences between the partially cor- 
 
 ' The Marquis of Bath's copy (No. L.) indicates a later stage in 
 the corredlion of the same leaf. Half of the errors here enumerated 
 have been removedj and half have been suffered to remain. 
 
)> » 
 
 » 
 
 3> 
 
 SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 19 
 
 redled text and the standard collation of the majority 
 of First Folios extant are as follows: 
 
 Standard Norfolk 
 
 T, Collation. Copy. 
 
 Page 277 
 
 Page number ' 277 ' for * 273.' 
 
 Col. 1, 1. 9 from end 'iowles' „ ' iowlos.' 
 
 Page 278 
 
 Col. I, 1. 17 ' sir, his' „ * sirh, is.' 
 
 „ 1. 20 ' years ' „ * yearys.' ^ 
 
 „ 1.41 'one thing' „ 'o-n thing.' 
 
 „ 1. 30 from end ' Coffin ' „ ' Cooffin.' 
 
 Col. 2, 1. 30 * Bride-bed ' „ ' Brid-bed.' 
 
 ' maid ' „ ' maide.' 
 
 1, 43 ' emphasis ' „ ' emphasies.' 
 
 1. 52 'wisenesse' „ 'wisensse.' 
 
 1. 4 from end * forbeare ' „ ' forebeare.' 
 
 „ last line ' Crocodile ' „ * crocadile.' 
 
 I have not noticed in the Duke's copy any other 
 discrepancies with the standard collation, save that 
 in the stage direftion respefting the death of ' King 
 Lear,' on the last page of that tragedy, the * e ' in 
 He dis is separated from the initial letter of the 
 word, and stands in complete isolation. 
 
 (III.) Bishop Gott's Copy. The present Bishop 
 of Truro, Dr. John Gott of Trenython, possesses a 
 copy which he inherited from his father, William 
 Gott, of Wyther Grange, Yorkshire. He describes it 
 as quite perfeft, but I have not had the opportunity 
 of inspefting it personally.^ The size is 1 2-|- x 8^ 
 inches, and the volume was rebound in red morocco 
 half a century ago. 
 
 ^ The bishop also tells me that he possesses a large number of 
 original Shakespeare quartos, including 'Hamlet,.' 1611; 'Love's 
 
20 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 (IV.) Mr. George C. Thomas's copy. This copy 
 which fetched the highest price since 1902 in a 
 London sale room was sold at Sotheby's, 20 June, 
 1904, for £gSo. It was then purchased by Messrs. 
 Pickering and Chatto, and passed to Mr. George C. 
 Thomas, of Philadelphia, through Messrs. Stevens 
 and Brown, the American agents. 
 
 A note on the fly-leaf records that the volume 
 was purchased in 1772 for five guineas. The old 
 russia binding dates from the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century. The fly-leaf, the title-page, and 
 the dedication leaf have all undergone some damage, 
 but have been repaired. The margin of some other 
 preliminary leaves, as well as the last leaf, has been 
 mended. It is a small copy, measuring 1 2^ x 8 
 inches. 
 
 The other newly-discovered copies make no claim 
 to perfedlion. The next five belong to the second 
 class of (imperfedl) copies, but one of these (No. V. 
 below) is of unique historic interest. 
 
 (V.) The ' TuRBUTT ' copy, lately restored to 
 THE Bodleian Library. This exemplar, known 
 as the ' Turbutt ' copy from the surname of its 
 recent owners, was the a(5lual First Folio which 
 was forwarded in sheets by the Stationers' Company 
 to the Bodleian Library at Oxford on the publication 
 of the volume late in 1623. The sheets were sent to 
 William Wildgoose, an Oxford binder, to be bound 
 on 17 February, 1623-4. On its return to the library 
 
 Labour 's Lost,' 1598; 'Romeo and Juliet,' 1599; 'Midsummer 
 Night's Dream,' 1600 (the two editions); 'Merchant of Venice,' 
 1600 (Roberts' 4to); 'Henry V.' (3rd edition), 1608; 'King 
 Lear,' 1608, with some other volumes hardly less valuable, 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 21 
 
 it received the press mark, S2 17 Art., and was, ac- 
 cording to custom, chained to the shelf. 
 
 On the publication of the Third Folio in 1664, 
 the volume was sold as ' superfluous ' by order of 
 the curators. It was bought by Richard Davis, an 
 Oxford bookseller, and, early in the eighteenth 
 century, it found its way into the library of Richard 
 Turbutt of Ogston Hall, Derbyshire, whose great 
 great grandson has lately parted with it. 
 
 It is a large copy, measuring i si x S-f- inches. 
 The fly-leaf is missing. The title-page is mounted; 
 the letterpress below the engraving has been cut 
 away. The portrait, although it is inlaid, is a fine 
 impression of the Droeshout engraving in its second 
 (shaded) state. The binding, which is much rubbed 
 in places, is of smooth brown calf The leather 
 strings have been removed, but signs of the chain 
 which originally linked it to its shelf survive. The 
 pages are much worn, but, with the important ex- 
 ception of the fly-leaf, all the leaves are present.-^ 
 
 Mr. Falconer Madan, the sub-librarian of the 
 Bodleian Library, exhibited the volume, and fully 
 described its pedigree at a meeting of the Biblio- 
 graphical Society on 20 February, 1905. An 
 elaborate account of ' The Original Bodleian copy 
 
 ' Mr. Gladwyn M. R. Turbutt, son of its recent owner, sent 
 me from Ogston Hall a full account of this volume on 26th 
 December, 1902, some three weeks after my ' Census ' was pub- 
 lished. He was not then aware of its association with the Bodleian 
 Library. This was discovered early in 1905, when the book was 
 taken to the Library by Mr. Gladwyn Turbutt for examination 
 by Mr. Falconer Madan, the sub-librarian. A careful inspedtion of 
 the binding by Mr. Strickland Gibson of the Bodleian Library, 
 disclosed the early history of the volume. 
 
22 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 of the First Folio of Shakespeare (The Turbutt 
 Shakespeare) ' was prepared jointly by Mr. Falconer 
 Madan, Mr. G. M. R. Turbutt, and Mr. Strickland 
 Gibson, and was printed at the Clarendon Press, 
 with plates, in the spring of last year. An appeal 
 was made in the autumn of 1905 to Oxford graduates 
 and others for a sum of money sufficient to purchase 
 the volume and restore it to the Bodleian Library. 
 Its value was estimated at ^3,000. All English 
 book-lovers may be congratulated on the success 
 of the appeal. The volume was secured for Oxford 
 in perpetuity on 31st March, 1906. 
 
 (VI.) Mr.W. R. Bixby's COPY. This copy now be- 
 longing to Mr. W. R. Bixby of St. Louis, Missouri, 
 U.S.A., has a long ascertainable pedigree. It was 
 in successive possession of two established families 
 in the County of Durham from the middle of the 
 seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century. 
 An entry in contemporary handwriting runs thus: 
 'Liber G. Spearman Dunelm. 1695.' The refer- 
 ence is to Gilbert Spearman, who published in 1728 
 an ' Inquiry into the Ancient and Present State of 
 the County Palatine of Durham,' and died in 1738. 
 The Spearmans resided through the eighteenth 
 century at Oldacres, Sedgefield in the County of 
 Durham. From them the book passed to the family 
 of Sutton of Elton in the same county, by whom it 
 was sold privately, in a very poor condition, to the 
 firm of Ellis of Bond Street in May, 1900. It came 
 into their hands a ' mere wreck.' The fly-leaf had 
 disappeared, and the title and last leaf were damaged. 
 The volume was carefully repaired, and bound by 
 Riviere, the fly-leaf being supplied in facsimile. 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 23 
 
 Messrs. Ellis and Elvey priced it in their catalogue 
 of November, 1901, at ^CqoOj ^^^ "^^^ month 
 it was acquired by its present owner through 
 Messrs. Stevens and Brown, the American agents of 
 London. It measures 1 2-|- x 8i inches, and may 
 be placed among satisfactory copies of the second 
 
 class. 
 
 (VII.) The ' Dawson-Brodie-Folger ' copy. 
 This copy was for some years in the stock of the 
 late Mr. F. S. Ellis, of Bond Street. It was made 
 up from one or two fragmentary copies which he 
 had acquired at various times. It was purchased at 
 his sale in 1885 for £97, by a Scottish colleaor, 
 Sir Thomas Dawson-Brodie of Idvies, N.B. 
 
 It was a comparatively large copy, measuring 
 13x8 inches. The fly-leaf, with the preliminary 
 leaf ' To the Memorie ' were, like the letterpress 
 of the title-page, in facsimile, but an original im- 
 pression of the portrait was inlaid in the restored 
 title. Some two hundred pages were supplied with 
 new margins, and the last leaf had undergone re- 
 paration. It was bound by Bedford. It fetched at 
 the sale of the library of Sir Thomas Dawson-Brodie, 
 on 18 March, 1904, the sum of ^^465, or nearly five 
 times as much as it cost Sir Thomas. It is now the 
 property of Mr. H. C. Folger, junr., of New York. 
 
 (VIII.) Mrs. a. B. Stewart's copy. This copy 
 belongs to the widow of Alexander Bannatyne 
 Stewart of Rawcliffe, Langside, Glasgow. At the 
 end of the volume is an autograph signature of 
 'Tho: Bourne', who was possibly an early owner. 
 In the middle of the nineteenth century it was in 
 the hands of the London bookseller Joseph Lilly, 
 
24 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 a mighty trader in First Folios. Other London 
 booksellers through whose hands it passed were 
 Basil Montagu Pickering of Piccadilly, and F. S. 
 Ellis of Bond Street. Before 1878 Ellis sold it, with 
 copies of the three other Folios, for the moderate 
 sum of three hundred guineas to the late Alexander 
 Bannatyne Stewart, of Glasgow, whose widow is 
 the present owner. The copy measures 1 2-^-j x yi 
 inches. The fly-leaf verses, the letterpress portion 
 of the title, and the last two leaves are in facsimile. 
 The corners of pages 291-292 of 'Winter's Tale' 
 have been torn away. The volume is richly bound 
 in red morocco. According to the report sent to 
 me, which I have not yet been able to test by per- 
 sonal examination, there is a singular discrepancy 
 at one point between this copy and all others which 
 have been collated. The signatures and the water- 
 mark of the leaves containing the play of ' Troilus 
 and Cressida ' are normal (and unlike those of any 
 of the later folios) but the pagination of the piece 
 (1-29) is unique. Ordinarily, the pages of' Troilus ' 
 are (save in two instances) unnumbered in the First 
 Folio. The next play, ' Coriolanus,' starts in Mrs. 
 Stewart's volume, as in normal copies, with a new 
 and independent pagination (i seq.).^ 
 
 (IX.) The ' Scott-Folger ' copy. The large 
 library of the late John Scott, C.B., of Halkshill, 
 Largs, Ayrshire, who was by profession a ship- 
 builder, contained a restored copy of the First Folio, 
 of which all the preliminary leaves and last leaf 
 were in facsimile. It measured iz\-kj\ inches, and 
 
 1 I have to thank Mrs. Stewart's son-in-law, Mr. David Laid- 
 law of Polmont, Stirlingshire, for all this information. 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 25 
 
 was richly bound by Roger de Coverley. It fetched 
 at the sale of the Scott library on 5 April, 1905, the 
 sum of £2^5, and was acquired by the American 
 coUeftor, Mr. H. C. Folger. 
 
 The remaining five ' new ' copies are all defective, 
 and would fill places in my third class. 
 
 (X.) Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 
 COPY. The copy belonging to this Society was de- 
 scribed by Mr. W. K. Dickson, Secretary of the 
 Society, at a meeting of the Society held at Edin- 
 burgh on 1 2th February, 1906. 
 
 It was presented to the Society, according to the 
 minute-book, by Miss Clarke of Dunbar, on 2nd 
 November, 1784. It was bound in dark brown 
 morocco by Messrs. Orrock and Son, of Edin- 
 burgh, about 1 870. The fly-leaf and portrait title- 
 page have been rebacked and mended. Seven 
 leaves have disappeared. Three of the preliminary 
 leaves are missing, viz., the dedication, the verses 
 to the ' memorie of the deceased Authour,' and the 
 list of adiors. Four leaves of the text are missing — 
 two of ' Romeo and Juliet,' pp. 53-6 of the 
 Tragedies, and the last two of the whole volume, 
 viz., pp. 397-9 of ' Cymbeline.' The margins of 
 some thirteen leaves are injured. 
 
 It is a small copy measuring 1 2^ x 7! inches. 
 The rare misprints, 307 for 309, and 309 for 307, 
 in ' King Lear ' are the chief discrepancies from 
 the standard collation. 
 
 (XI.) The ' Knight-Clowes ' Copy. The ex- 
 ternal literary history gives this copy, despite its 
 inferior condition, great interest. It belonged to 
 Charles Knight, whose edition of Shakespeare was 
 
26 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 the most popular of all editions in the nineteenth 
 century. Knight studied the First Folio with ex- 
 ceptional zeal. His copy of the volume, which now 
 belongs to his grandson, Mr. W. C. Knight-Clowes, 
 has peculiar fascination for students. Mr. Clowes 
 has been good enough to lend the book to me for a 
 long term of months. Its imperfeftions are, unfor- 
 tunately, very palpable, and it cannot be placed above 
 third-class copies in any catalogue raisonne. Of 908 
 original leaves 27 are lost; 881 alone survive. All 
 but three of the preliminary leaves have disappeared, 
 and the edges of those that survive are damaged. 
 Other missing leaves are two leaves of ' The Taming 
 of the Shrew,' two leaves of ' Henry VIII,' one 
 leaf of 'Troilus' (f), two leaves of ' Romeo and 
 Juliet,' two leaves of' Hamlet' (pp. 3, 4), and the 
 last twelve leaves of * Cymbeline,' with which the 
 volume ends. All the missing leaves, including six 
 in the preliminary seftion, have been supplied from 
 the facsimile typed reprint of 1807. The lost leaf 
 of the ' Merry Wives ' is bound out of its due place, 
 and has been needlessly supplied in duplicate from 
 the 1807 reprint. 
 
 The dimensions are 12^ x 8|- inches. The volume 
 has been roughly rebound in stamped russian leather 
 at a comparatively recent date. There are no textual 
 singularities. A few pages are defaced by manu- 
 script notes, for the most part senseless scribble, in 
 seventeenth century handwriting. On the lower 
 part of page 204 of the Histories — at the end of 
 the play of ' Richard III ' — appear in one hand 
 the name ' the Lady Sarah Hearst,' and in another 
 hand, ' the Ladie Ann Grey,' and ' The Lady Mary 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 27 
 
 Bucckinham.' Below the prologue to ' Troilus ' is 
 written the couplet: 
 
 When malt is cheap againe, mark w* I say 
 Weele laugh, and drink, and make an hallowday. 
 
 To Baccus &' Ceres. 
 
 (XII.) The Thorpe-Folger Copy. This copy 
 belonged to Mr. W. G. Thorpe of the Middle 
 Temple, a somewhat eccentric student of Shake- 
 speare, who died in the previous year — in 1903. It 
 measures 12^x7! inches, and is bound in russia. 
 The fly-leaf, title, and five of the seven preliminary 
 leaves are, together with the five last leaves, in fac- 
 simile by Harris. Three other leaves are supplied 
 from the second edition of 1632. Thus fifteen of 
 the original leaves were missing. It was acquired 
 by Messrs. Sotheran for Mr. Folger of New York 
 for £iSi, at the sale of Mr. Thorpe's library at 
 Sotheby's on i8th April, 1904. 
 
 (XIII.) The Waller Copy. A large but de- 
 feftive copy, measuring 1 3 x 8^ inches, fetched 
 ^420 at Sotheby's sale rooms on 29th July, 1904, 
 when it was bought by Mr. Waller. The portrait- 
 title was wanting, together with the first leaf of 
 'Troilus and Cressida,' and the last leaf of the 
 volume. There were several signs of injury by 
 fire. The margins of forty leaves were burnt, in 
 seventeen cases with injury to the text. Other de- 
 feats appeared in both the preliminary leaves and 
 the text of the plays. 
 
 (XIV.) Mr. H. R. Davis's Copy. The copy be- 
 longing to Mr. H. R. Davis, of Thistleton House, 
 Clissold Road, London, N., is in bad condition. It 
 
28 ADDITIONS TO THE 
 
 measures i2jX 8^ inches. The fly-leaf verses, the 
 portrait-title, three preliminary leaves, and about 
 seventy leaves of the text, including six at the end, 
 are missing. The volume is unbound. A manuscript 
 note on p. 229, in early seventeenth-century hand- 
 writing, is addressed to Viscount Cholmondeley and 
 his wife Katherine, and signed by Robert Shakerley, 
 a kinsman, and another. The copy would seem, 
 soon after its publication, to have been acquired by 
 a member of the family of Robert Cholmondeley, 
 who was created Viscount Cholmondeley of Kells 
 in 1628, and Earl of Leinster in 1645.1 
 
 IV 
 
 The general distribution of copies of the First 
 Folio is altered slightly, but rather significantly, by 
 recent investigations and changes of ownership. In 
 1902 there were one hundred and sixteen First 
 Folios in the United Kingdom, including the thir- 
 teen newly discovered copies which were then in 
 Great Britain, although I did not know of their 
 existence; fifty-one were in the United States of 
 America (including one — No. VI above — then un- 
 known to me) ; three were in the British colonies, and 
 two were on the continent of Europe. In addition to 
 
 ' Three exemplars, in addition to those named above, have been 
 sold in London sale rooms since 1902, but they were in so frag- 
 mentary a condition that they must be excluded from any catalogue 
 of substantial interest. The late Mr. William Henry Dutton of 
 Newcastle, Staffordshire, possessed 291 leaves of one copy, and 64 
 leaves of another, and these fragments were both sold at Sotheby's 
 on 8th December, 1903, for the sums of ^41 and ^^19 respeftively. 
 A third fragmentary copy was sold for ^^52 lox. to Mr. Quaritch 
 on 1st December, 1902. * 
 
SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 29 
 
 thefivenewlydiscoveredcopies, which have beensold 
 to American citizens since 1902, six other copies, 
 which I noticed in my ' Census ' as being in 1 902 
 in English hands, have within the same period 
 suffered like transportation. Thus, to-day, the 
 British total stands at one hundred and five, a de- 
 crease of eleven since 1902, and the American total 
 stands at sixty-two, an increase to the same extent. 
 The totals for the British Colonies and for the 
 European Continent are unaltered. 
 
 To Scotland I did, in 1902, an involuntary in- 
 justice, which the progress of time has now, as it 
 happens, to a large extent repaired. I assigned only 
 three copies to Scotland — one to Glasgow Univer- 
 sity, another to Mr. MacGeorge of Glasgow, and a 
 third to Mr. W. L. Watson, of Ayton, Abernethy. 
 But at the date at which my ' Census ' was published, 
 I was ignorant that no less than four other copies 
 were in the Northern Kingdom; one of these be- 
 longed to a public institution, and three were in pri- 
 vate hands. Thus, seven copies were, according to 
 my present information, in Scotland in 1902. Of 
 these, only four remain there to-day, viz., those re- 
 spe6tively in the libraries of Glasgow University, 
 of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, of Mr. 
 W. L. Watson, of Abernethy, and of Mrs. A, B. 
 Stewart, of Langside. The three remaining Scottish 
 copies are now in America. The MacGeorge copy 
 went to Mr. Perry, of Providence, and both the Scott 
 and the Brodie copies to Mr. Folger, of New York. 
 
 These two gentlemen, Mr. Perry and Mr. Folger, 
 are now the keenest colleftors of Shakesperiana in 
 the world, Mr. Folger is to be congratulated on 
 
30 SHAKESPEARE CENSUS. 
 
 having acquired in the last few years as many as 
 eight copies of the First Folio in all — a record 
 number for any private colledtor. 
 
 If the tide continue running so strongly towards 
 the West, the present ratio in the distribution of 
 copies of First Folio will not be long maintained. 
 Thirty-three of the British copies are in public 
 institutions, and in their case the likelihood of 
 further change of ownership is small. But one can 
 predicate no fixity of tenure of the larger number 
 of seventy-three copies which still remain in private 
 hknds on this side of the Atlantic. Probably half 
 of these are destined during the next generation to 
 adorn the shelves of private colle6tors in America. 
 Somewhere about 191 5 America and Great Britain 
 will in all likelihood each own the same number of 
 copies — some eighty-three apiece. No diminution 
 of the American demand during the next quarter 
 of a century looks probable at the moment. The 
 chances are that at the close of that epoch the exist- 
 ing ratio of American and British copies, sixty-two 
 to one hundred and five, will be exaftly reversed. 
 
CHISWICK PRESS : PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. 
 ' TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANK, LONDON.