New-York tribune., 1901-05-11
THE FIRST FOLIO SHAKESPEARE.
MR.. SIDNEY LEES COMPLETE CENSUS.

MR.. SIDNEY LEES COMPLETE CENSUS.
From The London Daily News
II is TO be hoped that Mr. Sidney Lee will
receive generous response 10 the appeal which
he has just made TO owners OF the First Folio
Shakespeare He desires to make "A complete
census OF still surviving copies in the preface
which ne is 10 contribute to the Photographic
fac-simile Of that precious book which the ClaT-
endon Press have in preparation. At present
there is no precise assurance Of the exact num-
Der In existence. In 1923 Isaac Jaggard-whose
name thereby attained an Immortality which
his other deeds scarcely entitled him-struck off
five hundred copies OF the first collected edition
OF Shakespeare under the shadow of old St
Dunstan's Church. in Fleet-st. Most OF them
way OF popular books, being literally thuTpbed
10 death. Is IL not Stevens who has recorded
the pleasure with which he used TO find flakes
OF pastry between the leaves of the First Folio?
No doubt the cynic is gratiied think that
our ancestors read Shakespeare over their break
fast tables where their degenerate children are
content with the daily papers; but such usage
does not tend TO a books longevity. Nowadays
We are more careful; even Wordsworth would
hardly have ventured 10 use the butterknife
a First Folio. II he had owned one though
We know OF living man OF letters who under
lined all the favorite passages of his own copy
In red ink. Perhaps the commercial instincts of
the average Briton viii save future copies from
such indignities; there is no trifng with book
that has been known 10 fetch Il 7O0-though Mr.
Quaritch confessed how that price engi-
neered-whie even the somewhat damaged copy
which was view this week in that fascinating
window In the Strand was ticketed at 300
guineas
IL may seem odd 10 the modern reader that
Mr.. Lee should be anxious TO make list OF
all existing copies OF the First Folio. The truth
is OF course. that they all of interest to the
student of texts, and II is important to know
where they are 10 be seen and collated. Now
adays each copy in an edition of 800 is expected
10 be an exact reproduction OF all the others
But In the seventeenth century printing was a
much slower and more tricky. well more
artistic business, and nearly all the copies of
the First FOlio-as Of other contemporary works
present slight differences from one another
The press worked slowly, and alterations
often made In the interval between pulling one
set OF sheets and the next; some errors We're
corrected others crept in. Binding done
haphazard. and the probable result is. the
Cambridge editors point out that no one copy
exactly corresponds with any other copy" As
the First Folio is not only the sole original
authority for seventeen plays but the best guide
10 the text OF nearly all the rest, these trifng
differences become vital they would be
to compare great things with small-in mod
ern bradshaw" The First Folio itself is out
OF most students reach. It twice reprinted
verbatim ad literatum' though even Booths
edition is hardly trustworthy enough for final
appeal Staunton made a Photographic repro
duction which IS so scarce. while that OF
Haiiwell- Phillips is so unreadable that we hope
that the Clarendon Press will make the number
OF their edition large enough, and the price
sufficiently low 10 satisfy at least the next
generation or two OF Shakespeare students. from
the most able TO him that can but spell"