The first edition of Shakespeare’s Plays (folio, 1623) has been rising in price from the commencement of the nineteenth century; but the enormous prices now paid do not date further back than 1864, when a specially fine copy was bought by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts at George Daniel’s sale for £716, 2s. This amount was paid on account of the height of the book and of its great beauty, and possibly the circumstance of the year being the tercentenary of Shakespeare’s birth had something to do with it, but this sale had the effect of raising the price of all copies permanently.

Beloe, writing in 1807 (“Anecdotes,” vol. i. p. 36), said, “Perhaps there is no book in the English language which has risen so rapidly in value as the first edition of the works of our great national poet. I can remember a very fine copy to have been sold for five guineas. I could once have purchased a superb one for nine guineas.” This statement can be corroborated; for the Cracherode copy in the British Museum, one of the few really fine copies, has the price £8, 18s. 6d. marked in it. Richard Wright’s copy sold in 1787 for £10, Allen’s in 1795 for 18 guineas. Farmer’s copy (wanting title, and with the last leaf in MS.) sold for £7. Garrick bought his copy from Payne for £1, 16s. Jolley obtained it at Garrick’s sale in 1823 for £34, 2s. 6d., and at Jolley’s sale in 1844 it realised £84. Lord Denbigh’s fine copy sold in 1825 for £89, 5s., and Broadley’s in 1832 for £51; William Combes’s copy (wanting title-page and all prefatory leaves, but with the text of the Plays complete) fetched 8 guineas in 1837; Bright’s copy (1845), with title repaired, verses from another edition, and some leaves inlaid, brought £31, 10s. The Stowe copy (1849), with verses inlaid, £76; Hawtrey’s (1853), with some leaves mended, £63. In 1824 Mr. Thorpe the bookseller advertised a set of the four folios—first, £65; second, 10 guineas; third, £25; and the fourth, 6 guineas, or the four for £100. About the same time Mr. Pickering marked a similar set £95.

Copies of the first folio are so constantly sold that one might suppose it to be a common book, but this may be accounted for by the fact that they are constantly changing hands. There are only a few copies absolutely perfect, but others are made up from various copies, or with pages in facsimile. This makes the most imperfect copies of value, because they can be used to perfect others.

Dibdin described thirty copies of the first folio in his “Library Companion,” and these he arranged in three classes. In the first class he placed three copies, belonging respectively to Mr. Cracherode, the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, and Mr. Daniel Moore. The first two are now in the British Museum, and the third is the Daniel copy, for which Lilly the bookseller offered £300.

Mr. Grenville’s copy was bought at Saunders’s sale in 1818 for £121, 16s., which was then thought to be a great sum, and Dibdin makes the unfortunate prophecy that this was “the highest price ever given, or likely to be given, for the volume.” Mr. Grenville told Dibdin that an ancestor of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn possessed an uncut copy of the first folio. “It was lying on the table in that condition when, in a luckless moment, a stationer in the neighbourhood of Wynnstay came in. The book was given to him to be bound, and off went not only the edges, but half of the margins.” Another piece of vandalism was the inlaying the leaves of the book and binding them in three volumes. This was Henderson the actor’s copy, which sold at Reed’s sale for £38. In the second class were included some very good copies.

The price mentioned by Steevens is that which the Duke of Roxburghe gave for his copy in 1790, respecting which Dibdin relates an anecdote that took his fancy so much, that he tells the story both at the beginning and at the end of his Bibliomania.

A rather different version of this story of Nicol’s purchase for the Duke is given in Martin’s “Privately Printed Books.”

This copy sold at the Roxburghe sale for £100, and is now in the Duke of Devonshire’s library. Dibdin had a commission from Sir Mark Masterman Sykes to give £75.

Hibbert’s copy was pronounced by Mr. Amyot to be the best copy he had seen after those placed in the first class. It belonged to “Dog” Jennings, and was purchased of Mr. Payne for 70 guineas. At Hibbert’s sale it fetched 81 guineas, and was resold in 1847 at Wilks’s sale for £155. It again occurred at Dunn Gardner’s sale (1854), when it was bought by Mr. H. Huth for £250.

Dent’s copy was a tall copy, identical in measurement with Daniel’s, and with some rough leaves, but the title and verses were pasted down. It was bought by H. Perkins for £110, 5s., and at Perkins’s sale it realised £585, 10s.

John Kemble’s copy was inlaid on large paper, and bound by Mackinlay. It was purchased by Mr. Boswell for £112, 7s., and at his sale it brought £105.

In the third class are the following:—

Steevens’s copy was given to him by Jacob Tonson in 1765, and it had passed through the hands of Theobald and Dr. Johnson, the “latter not having improved its condition.” It wants the title and portrait, the latter being supplied by a facsimile drawing by Steevens. The verses are from the second edition. Dr. Charles Burney bought this at the sale of Steevens’s library for £22. It is now in the British Museum. Nassau’s copy was perfect, with the exception that the verses were from the second edition. It was bought by Mr. Thorpe for £49, 7s.

E. V. Utterson’s copy was fair, with title and portrait mounted, verses inlaid, and several leaves mended. It sold for £49 in 1852.

Colonel Stanley’s copy was in fair condition, but wanted the original verses and title-page. It was bought at Stanley’s sale by Mr. North for £37, 16s., and at North’s sale it realised £39, 18s.

Heber gave 10 guineas for his copy, which wanted verses, list of actors, &c., title a reprint from the second edition, some leaves stained, and others mutilated. This sold at Heber’s sale (1834) for £57, 15s.

A copy of the first folio is now looked upon as a necessary addition to a first-class library, but there was no copy in the libraries of the Earl of Oxford, Dr. Mead, West, Askew, Crofts, Beauclerk, Heath, Willett, Bindley, or in the Sunderland or Hamilton Palace libraries.

Mr. Robert Holford is said to have given £250 for his tall copy.

The following is a list of some of the copies which have been sold since the famous Daniel copy:—

SECOND FOLIO, 1632.

The most interesting copy of the second folio is in the King’s Library. It belonged to Dr. Mead, at whose sale it was bought by Askew for £2, 12s. 6d. At Askew’s sale it was bought by Steevens for £5, 10s., an amount which he styled enormous. At Steevens’s sale this copy was bought for George III. for eighteen guineas. It formerly belonged to Charles I., who wrote in it, “Dum spiro spero, C.R.” The King presented it the night before his execution to Sir Thomas Herbert, who had written, “Ex dono serenissimi Regis Car. Servo suo Humiliss. T. Herbert.” Steevens mistook the identity of this Herbert, and wrote, “Sir Thomas Herbert was Master of the Revels to King Charles the First.” George III. wrote beneath Steevens’s note, “This is a mistake, he (Sir Thomas Herbert) having been Groom of the Bed-Chamber to King Charles I., but Sir Henry Herbert was Master of the Revels.”

Dibdin made the same mistake with respect to this price that he did with respect to the price of the Grenville first folio. He wrote, “£18, 18s.—the largest sum ever given, or likely to be given, for the book.” Now in 1895, at the Earl of Orford’s sale, the largest and finest copy known of the second folio, in the original calf binding, sold for the enormous sum of £540. This is out of all proportion to the price of the first folio, and a ridiculous amount to pay for a volume of little interest by itself, and only of value as one of the four original editions.

The next largest price realised for a second folio was £148 for Daniel’s copy, which has some rough leaves, and was bought by Daniel from Thorpe, who bought it at the Nevill Holt sale for £28, 1s.

The Earl of Aylesford’s copy, with title laid down, and without verses (13-3/16 in. by 8-3/4 in.) sold in 1888 for £140. Brayton Ives’s perfect copy was sold in New York in 1891 for 400 dollars (£80). Birket Foster’s copy sold in 1894 for £56.

It is only lately that such high prices have been obtained for this edition. The following is a list of some of the prices given at an earlier date:—

THIRD FOLIO, 1664 (some copies dated 1663).

This edition is scarcer than the second, owing to the copies having been destroyed in the Fire of London. The title-page of 1663 has the portrait, and that of 1664 is without it. Mr. Thorpe, in one of his catalogues, said that he had “refused £10 for the title of 1663.” Mr. Quaritch gave £11 for one in 1895 at Sotheby’s.

The following is a list of the prices that some copies have realised:—

FOURTH FOLIO, 1685.

Dibdin says of this that it “has little to recommend it, either on the score of rarity or intrinsic worth.” Even now the prices are not very high, and it is only required to complete the set of folios.

The following are some of the prices that this volume has realised:—

SEPARATE PLAYS.