tl<_ :« Brief notices of Shakespeare rarities James Halliwell-Phillipps THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES A LIST OF laKiF^liFflpp ^flPiMF^* ""^ "•^ Compiled for the use of the Members of the British Archaeological Association on the occasion of their visit to Holling-bury Copse, Saturday, ■f August the 22nd, 1885. / V A LIST OF IflfeF^ppflPF Mmn?$, ei Compiled for the use of the Members of the British Archaeological Association on the occasion of their visit to Hollingbury Copse, Saturday, August the 22nd, 1885. •^i^ BRIEF V NOTICES * OF A SMALL NUMBER OF THE ^pa6e0|>eare (§^ri V>> C ^ Printed for the Use of Literary Visitors, —1885. PREFACE. THE Shakespeare collection at Hollingbury Copse includes numerous early manu- scripts and books that refer to the literary history of the great dramatist, but its main feature is the largest assemblage that has ever been formed of objects that illustrate his biography. The latter alone, consisting of more than fifteen hundred separate articles, would require the disposal of a week or more for a studious examination. The following pages contain merely notices of the few articles in the collection that for some years past have been usually shown to visitors, and which have been selected from those that are likely to be of the most general interest. J. O. HALLIWELL-PlIILLIPrS. August^ i^J^S- 50361: T No. I. HE engraving on the right is a proof copy of the Droeshout portrait of 1623, and is the only Ukeness of Shakespeare in existence which has come down to us in an original unaltered state. No other copy of the engraving in this reliable state has yet been discovered, the only ones in all other libraries being those taken from a retouched plate, an example of an impression of which will be seen on the left. The latter is one of the only three impressions known of the title-page of the edition of 1632 before the spelling of the word coppies was altered, a circumstance which, although apparently trivial, is of value as showing that it includes one of the earliest impressions from the plate after it had been used for the first folio. The following observations upon this proof-engraving are from the pen of the late F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A.,— "the portrait in this state of the engraving, is remarkable for clearness of tone; the shadows being very delicately rendered, so that the light falls upon the muscles of the face Avith a softness not to be found in the ordinary impressions. This is particularly visible in the arch under the eye, and in the muscles of the mouth ; the expression of the latter is much altered in the later states of the plate by the enlargement of the up-turned moustache, which hides and destroys the true character of this part of the face. The whole of the shadows have been darkened by cross-hatching and coarse dotting, particularly on the chin ; this gives a coarse and undue prominence to some parts of the portrait, the forehead 8 SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. particularly. In this early state of the plate the hair is darker than any of the shadows on the head, and flows softly and naturally ; in the retouched plate the shadow is much darker than the roots of the hair, imparting a swelled look to the head and giving the hair the appearance of a raised wig. It is remarkable that no shadow falls across the collar ; this omission and the general low tone of colour in the engraving, may have induced the retouching and strengthening which has injured the true character of the likeness, which, in its original state, is far more worthy of Ben Jonson's commendatory lines." The late Mr. William Smith, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, whose knowledge of early engraving was unrivalled, thus wrote to me in reference to a suggestion that the variations were caused by an accident to the plate, — " I was unwilling to answer your note until I had made another careful examination of your engraving, as well as of the very fine impression in the usual state which we have recently purchased for the National Portrait Gallery. This I have now done, and I can find no traces of any damage whatever. I fully believe that, on what is technically termed proving the plate, it was thought that much of the work was so delicate as not to allow of a sufficient number of impres- sions being printed. Droeshout might probably have refused to spoil his work, and it was retouched by an inferior and coarser engraver." Believing this proof-engraving to be the most authentic portrait of Shakespeare in existence, it has long been my wish to offer the public an accurate copy of it. All attempts, however, at a faithful reproduction, either on wood or by photography, have at present miserably foiled ; while the process the most likely to be effective, line-engraving, appears to be all but a lost art. Further advice on the subject will be gratefully considered. SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. Q) No. 2. The original conveyance to Shakespeare of the house in the Blackfriars that he purchased in the year 1613, — made " betweene Henry Walker, citizein and minstrell of London, and WiUiam Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon in the countie of Warwick, gentleman." Quite perfect, and in a beautiful state of preservation. This is the identical deed which was enrolled in Chancery, having the original official endorsement, and it is one of the very few articles in existence which can be positively stated to have been in the hands of the great dramatist. It was for many years one of the most prominent treasures of the Sainsbury collection. No. 3. The original deed transferring the legal estate of the house last-mentioned, 10 February, 161 7-8, in trust to follow the directions of Shakespeare's will, subject only to the remaining term of a lease granted by the poet to one John Robinson. It appears from an endorsement that this deed was handed over at the time to Susanna Hall, the poet's daughter. No. 4. A copy of the first collective edition of the dramatic works of Shakespeare, 1623, containing misprints which indicates the priority of the impression. Thus, on the second column of p. 172 of the Histories, at line 13 atid is misprinted add, and, in the second line following, its instead of kiss, the correct readings being found in all other copies excepting in one in the library of A 3 lO SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. the Earl of Ellesmere mentioned by Mr. Aldis Wright in the Cambridge Shakespeare, v. 342. These variations are of course of no value in themselves, but they are of im- portance as evidences of the careful revision of the text that was made by the printers of this remarkable volume. No. 5. An original deed with the very rare signature of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, the individual who owes his celebrity to his inconsiderate treatment of the youth who was afterwards to be the national dramatist of England. This indenture was executed in December, 17 Elizabeth, 1574, and it bears also the signatures of Sir Thomas's two brothers, Timothy and Edward. No. 6. An original deed of conveyance granted by the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's friend and patron, with a fine specimen of his autograph signature. It refers to property at Romsey, near Southampton, and it was executed by the earl in the year 1603, a few weeks after his release from his imprisonment in the Tower of London, No. 7. A paper in the hand- writing of the Rev. Joseph Greene, Master of the Grammar School of Stratford-on-Avon, 1767, containing the only account of Shakespeare's residence of New Place that has been recorded from the spoken words of a person who had actually seen the building, one Richard Grimmitt, who was born at Stratford in January, 1683, and who " said he in his youth had been a playfellow with SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. I I Edward Clopton, senior, eldest son of Sir John Clopton, Knt, and had been often with him in the great house near the chapel in Stratford call'd New Place ; that, to the best of his remembrance, there was a brick wall next the street, with a kind of porch at that end of it next the Chapel, when they cross'd a small kind of green court before they enter'd the house, which was bearing to the left and fronted with brick, with plain windows consisting of common panes of glass set in lead." No. 8. Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, being the second part of Wits Common Wealth, by Francis Meres, Maister of Artes of both Universities. At London, Printed by P. Short for Cuthbert Burbie, and are to be sold at his shop at the Royall Exchange, 1598. — Opened at the pages con- taining the earliest list of Shakespeare's works known to exist, including " his sugred Sonnets among his private friends," Sir. No. 9. Poems, written by Wil. Shake-speare, gent., i2mo., 1640, with the original engraved portrait of the author by Marshall. No. 10. England's Parnassus, or the choysest Flowers of our Moderne Poets, with their Poeticall Comparisons, descrip- tions of Bewties, &c. 8vo. 1600. — Opened at p. 192, where there are extracts from Venus and Adonis and from Romeo and Juliet. There are numerous other quotations from Shakespeare in the same volume. I 2 SHAKESPEARE -RARITIES. No. II. Select Observations on English Bodies, or Cures both Empericall and Historicall performed upon very eminent Persons in desperate Diseases. Written in Latine by Mr. John Hall, physician, living at Stratford-upon-Avon in War- wickshire. i2mo. Lond. 1657. The first and very rare edition of the cases attended to by Shakespeare's son-in- law. No. 12. Visscher's view of London, engraved in the early part of the reign of Charles the First. The volume contains a complete impression of the view, the portion shown being that which gives a representation in the fore-ground of the second Globe Theatre, the house at which Shakespeare's plays were frequently represented in and after the year 1 6 14. No. 13. An original deed executed in the year 1605 with the rare autograph, as a witness, of Francis Collyns, who was also one of the witnesses to Shakespeare's will and the poet's solicitor. No. 14. Golding's translation of Ovid, 1567, one of the few books that can be positively asserted to have been at least partially read by Shakespeare, several passages from it being adopted in the Tempest. SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. \ "i. No. 15. A Pleasant Conceited Comedie called Loves Labors Lost, as it was presented before Queen Elizabeth in the Christmas holidays, 1597. 4to. Lond. 1598. — Of great rarity, only five other copies being known. This is the first publication of any of Shakespeare's works in whicli his name appears as the author on the title-page. No. 16. The True Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the sixt, with the whole con- tention betweene the two Houses, Lancaster and Yorke, as it was sundry times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his servantes. Printed at London, 1600. This is the second edition of the surreptitious copy of the Third Part of Henry the Sixth. Only six copies known. No. 17. The First Part of the True and Honourable History of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham. Written by William Shakespeare. 4to. 1600. — A play im- pudently ascribed by the publisher to the great dramatist, an evidence of the early commercial value of his name. No. 18. Lilly's Shorte Introduction of Grammar generally to be used, compiled and set forth for the bringing up of all those that intende to attaine the knowledge of the Latine tongue. 4to. Lond. 1568. 14 SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. An impression which is either unique or of very extreme rarity, being unnoticed by all the bibliographers. It is, in all probability, the edition that was in use at the Stratford grammar-school when Shakespeare was gathering his "little Latin and less Greek " at that establishment. That the great dramatist had imbibed something from this book is clear from his quoting a line from Terence in the form in which it is given in this volume, not in that in which it appears in the work of the ancient poet. No. 19. Microcosmos, the Discovery of the Little World with the Government thereof. Ey John Davies. 4to. Oxford, 1603. — Opened at the page containing the curious allusions to Shakespeare and Burbage, the identification proved by their initials on the margin. 'fn' No. 20. The History of the Two IMaids of More-clacke (Mort- lake), with the Life and simple manner of John in the Hospitall. Written by Robert Armin, Shakespeare's col- league, 1609. — The woodcut on the title-page is one of the (e\v pictorial examples that we have of the stage-costume of Shakespeare's time. Only four other copies known. No. 21. An Apology for Actors containing three briefe Treatises. Written by Thomas Heywood. 4to. 1612. — Opened at the postscript containing Heywood's interesting note respecting the attribution to Shakespeare of the Passionate Pilgrim and the annoyance that its publication inflicted on the latter. SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. 15 No. 22. Colin Clouts Come Home Again. By Ed. Spencer. 4to. London, Printed for William Ponsonbie, 1595. — Opened at the page containing the interesting allusion to Shakespeare. No. 23. The Raigne of King Edward the Third, as it hath bene sundry times played about the Citie of London. Imprinted at London by Simon Stafford for Cuthbert Burby, and are to be sold at his shop neere the Royall Exchange, 1599. — A' play generally believed to have been revised by Shake- speare. No. 24. A pleasant and fine Conceited Comedie taken out of the most excellent wittie poet Plautus, chosen purposely from out the rest as least harmefull and yet most delightfull. Written in English by W. W. 4(0. Lond. 1595. There is no evidence that Shakespeare ever saw this production, but Collier may be right in conjecturing that its publication was suggested through the popularity of the Comedy of Errors. Only two other copies known. No. 25. A volume of collections by the Rev. Joseph Greene, Master of the Grammar-School of Stratford-on-Avon, 1 731-17 7 1, respecting the monumental effigy of Shake- speare, and the "repairing" of it in the year 1748. — Opened at a page containing an interesting letter on the last-mentioned subject. I 6 SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. No. 26. The First Bookc of Ayres, or little short Songs to sing and play to the Lute, with the base Viole. Newly published by Thomas Morley, Bachiler of Musicke and one of the gent, of her Majesties Royall Chappel. fol. Imprinted at London in Litle S. Helen's by William Barley, 1600. — Opened at the pages which contain the original music to the song, — "It was a lover and his lass" — in As You Like It. The present is the only copy of this work known to exist. No. 27, The Auncient Historic of the Destruction of Troy, containing the founders and foundation of the said Citie, besides many admirable and most rare exployts of chivalrie and martiall prowesse, with incredible events compassed for and through the love of ladies. 4to. London, Printed by Thomas Creede, 1596. This is the edition which was used by Shakespeare for a portion of the story of Troilus and Cressida. Only one other copy known. No. 28. The history of Tom Drum's vaunts, and his rare enter- tainment at Mistress Farmer's house, the faire widow of Fleete Streete. A chapter from Deloney's Historie of the Gentle Craft, 1598.— Alluded to in All's Well that Ends Well. No other copy known. SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. I J No. 29. A manuscript volume of poetical miscellanies of the time of Charles the First, opening at a page containing the following hitherto unpublished version of the lines on John a Combe attributed to Shakespeare — Ten in th' hundred by the lawes you may have, But twenty in th' hundred the divel doth crave. If any ask who lyes in this tomb, Baw, wough, quoth the divel, 'tis my John a Coom. There is this to be said in favour of the authenticity of the present version, that the legal rate of interest in Shake- speare's time was ten per cent. It was not reduced until some years after his death, Stat. 21 Jac. I, c. 17 ; but at the same time, it is not at all necessary to believe that the attribution of the authorship is correct. No. 30. The Battell of Alcazar fought in Barbaric betweene Sebastian, King of Portugall, and Abdelmelec, King of Marocco. 4to. Lond. 1594. — This is one of the very few contemporary plays that are distinctly quoted by Shakespeare. No. 31. A fragment of four leaves only, but unique, no other vestige of a copy having yet been discovered, of the first edition of the first part of the Hystorie of Henry the Fourth, 1598. — Opened at the page the last line of which is the only existing record of the true reading in Poins's speech, — "How the fat rogue roar'd ! " It is something at this late day to recover even one lost word of the immortal text. . I 8 'SHAKESPEARE RARITIES No. 32. An Heptameron of Civill Discourses, containing the Christmasse Exercise of sundrie well-courted Gentlemen and Gentlewomen. 4to. Lond. 1582. — This work includes the foundation-story of Measure for Measure by the author of the play next mentioned. No. 33. The right excellent and famous Historye of Promos and Cassandra, wherein is showne the unsufferable abuse of a lewde Magistrate, the vertuous behaviours of a chaste Ladye, &c., 1578. — This is the play whence Shakespeare derived the plot of Measure for Measure. Only three other copies known. No. 34. Timbre de Cardone ende Fenicie van Messine, a Dutch play on the story of Much Ado about Nothing acted in Holland in the year 1618, with a wood-engraving of one of the scenes. No. 35. A manuscript volume of poetical miscellanies, compiled by Matthew Day, Mayor of Windsor, in the early part of the seventeenth century. — Opened at a page containing verses entitled, " Shakespeare on the King." No. 36. England's Helicon. 4to. Lond. i6oo. — Opened at a page containing a version of lines in Love's Labour's Lost. SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. IQ No. 37- Vincentio Saviolo his Practise. In two Bookes. The first intreating of the use of the Rapier and Dagger. The second, of Honor and honorable Quarrels. 4to. London, Printed by John Wolfe, 1595. — This book is alluded to by Touchstone in As You Like It,— ''O, sir, we quarrel in print, by the book," Sec. No. 38. A manuscript of the Return from Parnassus " as it was acted in St. John's CoUedge in Cambridge, anno 1602." This is the only manuscript of the time of Elizabeth in a private library in which any of the works of Shakespeare are mentioned. It is of great interest and literary value as the record of a more accurate text than the hitherto only known early copy, the edition of 1606. The title in the manuscript is " the Progresse to Parnassus," the reason for the adoption of either title being obscure. No. 39. The printed edition of the drama last-mentioned, ji5o6. — Opened at the page which contains the notice of Shakespeare. No. 40. An original family deed of 1596 executed in the presence of John Shakespeare, the poet's father, whose name is there spelt Shaxpere. 20 SHAKESPEARE KAKITIES. No. 41. An original trust-deed with the signature of Shakespeare Hart, great-grandson of the poet's sister. He spells his name most oddly — Shaxpeer Hart — a curious evidence of the local pronunciation of the first name. There are several examples of his signature at Stratford-on-Avon, but this is probably the only one in private hands. No. 42. Norden's plan of London, 1593, showing the Rose Theatre, the only regular one then on the south of the Thames, and that in which Shakespeare's earliest dramas were produced. This plan gives a more accurate idea than any other of the metropolis as it existed in the poet's time. No. 43. The merry conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver, an old droll made up from the comic portions of the Mid- summer Night's Uream. No. 44. An original sketch, by Richard Greene, of Lichfield, of the exterior of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-on- Avon, with the ancient wooden spire that was removed in the year j 763, believed to be the earliest drawing of the Church known to exist. SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. 2 I No. 45. A play-bill of the time of AVilliam the Third, announcing a performance of Dryden's Troilus and Cressida on October the 28th, 1697. This is the earliest authentic play-bill of a Shakespearean character which is known to exist. Play-bills, or " billes for players," as they are termed in the Stationers' Registers for 1587, were in ordinary use throughout the time of Shakespeare, but none earlier than the time of William the Third are known to be in existence. Even any of the latter are of extreme rarity. The names of actors do not appear to have been inserted in play-bills before the time of George the Second. No. 46. The Murder of Thomas a Becket, one of the mural paintings formerly on the walls of the Guild Chapel, Stratford-on-Avon. An original drawing by Fisher. All Fisher's original drawings are in this collection, and are of considerable interest, the published engravings not being accurate copies. No. 47. A case containing early quarto editions of the j^lays of Shakespeare, 1600 to 1655. No. 48. There has not been a single article hitherto named the genuineness of which can be rationally questioned ; but in the case of the piece of glass bearing this number a doubt of authenticity may fairly be raised in the absence of a perfect chain of evidence in favor of its assumed history. SIfA KESPE. I A' h' RARITIES. SHAKESPEARE RARITIES. 2 3 So much deception has been practiced in advancing the claims of Shakespearean reHcs that it is impossible to be too cautious in investigating the testimonies by which those claims are supported. All that is known respecting the present one may thus be briefly stated. This bit of glass was thus first publicly mentioned in Fairholt's Home of Shakespeare, 1847, p. 27, — "there is an apparently genuine relic of New Place at present (1847) in the possession of the Court family, who own Shakespeare's house. It is a square of glass, measuring nine inches by seven, in which a circular piece is leaded, having the letters W. A. S. for "William and Anne Shakespeare, tied in a true lover's knot, and the date, 1615, the year before the poet's death, beneath. A relative of the late Mrs. Court, whose ancestor had been employed to pull down New Place, had saved this square of glass, but attached litde value to it. He gave it to her, but slie had an honest dislike to the many pretenders to relics, and never showed this glass unless it was expressly requested by the few who had heard of it. She told her story simply, made no comments, and urged no belief. The letters and figures are certainly characteristic; they are painted in dark brown outhne, tinted with yellow ; the border is also yellow. The lead is decayed, and the glass loose." The late Mr. Fairholt, one of the best judges in such matters that ever lived, was of a decided opinion that the glass is a genuine work of art of the Shakespearean period. If so, it may be taken for granted that it is an authentic Stratford relic, for it is incredible that any one should have pounced elsewhere upon a glass with the three desirable initials, brought it from a distance into the town, and then invented a New Place story without a commercial or any other sort of intelligible object. But how came the piece of glass to be in the possession of the tenant of the Birth- 24 SJIA KESi '£. t K E R A R I TIES. Place ? An explanation has recently presented itself in a passage in a manuscript compiled in the year 1796, and now in the Bodleian (MS. Malone 40), the writer, after mentioning the Clopton painted-glass, which, as is well known, was taken by Shakespeare Hart from the Chapel (amongst other refuse from alterations that had been ordered in that building) and inserted in a window of the Birth-Place, says, — " there are several more scraps of painted glass dispersed in other windows of the said premises." Now when New Place was pulled down in the year 1701, Shakespeare Hart was at all events the leading, if not the only, glazier in the town, and it is most likely, if the New Place glass is correctly so designated, that it had been inserted by him in a Birth-Place window, remaining there till 1796, getting afterwards into Mrs. Court's hands through some alteration or repairs in the window in which it had been placed, a more likely hypothesis than her state- ment as recorded ■ by Fairholt and perhaps misunderstood by him. There is thus somewhat more than a possibility of its genuineness as a Shakespearean relic, but it is unlikely that evidence leading to a decisive opinion will now ever be accessible. Unless, however, its genuineness as a work of art of the year 161 5 be disputed, — and no suspicion in this direction has yet transpired, — even the few known details of its history appear to be explicable only on the assumption that it is a genuine relic of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. iidrrison &> Sons, Printers in Ordi)iary'to fler Majesty, St, Afar/ins Lmie^ THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. THE LIBRARY _ 'WERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGLES PR 2933 HalliT^ell- H72E15 Fhillipps - Brief notice of Shake spear' rarities. > bUUlHbK'.REGIO'.AL LIBRARY F AA 000 370 163 PR 2953 H72H15 UniM S