Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-18
First Cases of Rare Volumes
Were Received at New
Library Thursday.
EXACT NUMBER OF ITEMS
IN GIFT is NOT KNOWN
Many Months Will Pass Before
Books Are Catalogued and
Available to Public.
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.

! jacent to the Library of Congress, have
| begun to arrive. The first cases were
! received Thursday.
The volumes gathered by Henry Clay
| Folger, financier and induStriallst,
| through the last five decades OF his
life and bequeathed by him to the Ma
ton have been in fireproof storage in
| New York for long period. Many OF
them Mr.. Folger himself had not eX-
amined in many years. Even the eX-
, act number of items in the collection
is not known with positive certainty. 1t
has been estimated that there are as
many as 10000. Another estimate has
the figure as low as $4,000. 1t Is for
this as we'll as other reasons that Will
liam A. Slade, recently appointed Ii
brarian of the Folger Foundation. and
his associates are inordinately curious
about the exact contents of the heavy
boxes now en- route to them. AS one
case after another is opened and its
treasures disclosed there will be ex-
element at the new library comparable
only with that with which Mr.. Folger
originally pursued his quest for the
books in Europe and America.
Cataloging Monumental Work.
The task of properly arranging and
cataloging the collection will be
monumental work. Just how long IT
will take is a matter of speculation. 1t
will be many months in any event be-
fore the books will be available Tor
public inspection. The date Tor open
ing the building cannot be set until
the books are in order.
Prof George F. Whicher. PHI. D., OF
Amherst College. the institution charged
with the maintenance Of the Folger
Library, under the terms of Mr.. Folger's
will. recently discussed the collection in
an article in the Atlantic Monthly. "Of
all the collected editions" he said, the
most interesting to both laymen and
special students is. OF course. the First
Folio of 1923. containing the earliest
printed versions of 20 of the 81 plays
included in the Shakespeare canon.
Only a few more than 200 copies of
this book have been preserved. and OF
these 70, including fragments. are in
the Folger collection. Among than are
the Daniel Folio. once owned by the
Baroness Rurdett-CouttS. and listed BY
Sir Sidney Lee as l OF the ID copies
in a perfect state of preservation; 8
others also regarded as perfect, though
apparently not so listed by Lee: of
81 copies placed by Lee in the second
division of the first class because of
minute defects, and perhaps most in
teresting of all, though not perfect. the
Vincent Folio, the tallest known copy
and one of the first to come from the
press, bearing on its title page an in
Scrption recording its presentation by
William Jaggard the printer Of the
volume, to Augustine Vincent. the
herald. who had been instrumental in
securing the grant of Shakespeare
arms This last First Folio was the
first copy Mr.. Folger acquired.
Purchased Facsimile for S1.25.
Among the less distinguished copies
in a company where all are of high
distinction is one which Mr.. Folger
must have regarded with special az
lection, the Roberts Folio, used by
Chatto and Windus in the production
of the reduced facsimile edited by j. o.
Halliwell- Phillips in 1876. 1t was with
the purchase of this facsimile for 81 .25
that Mr.. Folger commenced his career
AS a student of ShakeSpeare's text and
a collector Of Shakespearean books.
THE FolioS succeeding the first are
also generously represented, the Sec
ond Folio by at least so copies, the
Third Folio by at least "a, including
both issues. and the Fourth by at least
30. Only approximate figures can be
given.
Next to the Folios. which stand
foremost among the glorieS of the
Folger Library, come the plays in
ouarto. of which the earliest printed
are among the rarest of rare books.
Not infreuuently an edition is known
by only three to six surviving copies,
and in some instances single copy is
all that remains Seventeen plays
were printed in quarto form before
the issue of the First Folio, IA OF them,
as is now maintained, from fairly re-
liable manuscripts. and five, counting
Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet once
in each group from stolen and sur
reptitious copies irregularly secured by
catchpenny publishers. OF the five
bad uuartoS Mr. Folger was able to
obtain all but the 1903 Hamlet, and
of the IA good first quartos II. the
missing items being Richard II l59O
and the First Part of Henry w Q598).
To compensate for these gaps his
library includes a unique fragment
flour leaves regarded by Halliwell-
Phillips as a portion of the first and
hitherto unknown edition of the First
Part of Henry W." published by Wise
early in the year 1898 and a unique
third edition of Richard II Q598),
which has been the object OF much
photographed attention.
mr.. Folger also possessed the only
known copy of Titus Andronfcus
G594). the earliest printed of all Shake
speare's plays: one. of the three known
comics of Hamlet 5000. the first is
sue of the revised PLAY. and the rare
second edition of 'Pericles' Q6lD. be-
sides both states of the first edition.
out of a large and representative
collection of later quartos, from winch
only three of those issued prior to 1923
appear to be missing, the item that most
insistently demands recognition is the
bound set of the Jaggard-Pavier quartos
of 1919, the only complete set known
to have survived in seventeenth century
binding. A second but incomplete copy
of the same curious book Is noted in
Mr.. Folger's record of his purchases.
plays that Shakespeare revised and
plays wrongfully attributed to him by
enterprising publishers are well repre-
sented, nearly always in the form OF
first quartos.
"Of the very scarce early issues of
Venus and Adonis,' the Folger Library
holds a unique fragment of the third
edition, one of the two known copies
of the sixth edition, and one of the
two known copies of the thirteenth
There are 2 of the 10 recorded copies
of the Rape of Lucrece,' first edition,
and single examples of the third, sixth,
seventh and eighth editions. The
'Sonnets' are represented by two copies
of the first printing $1,000. Finally
there are 10 copies of the first collected
edition of the Poems (1640), at least
one of which has the rare portrait of
william Marshall, the second likeness
of Shakespeare to be engraved"
The term folio" indicates q book