the seventeenth century the folios of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ben Jonson all sold for about the same price. Those of the first now sell for one hundred and two hundred times what they brought then, while those of the second and third do not bring ten times.
Beaumont and Fletcher’s Works, 1647.
Sir Edward Bysshe (1679), 13s. 6d. Smallwood (1684), 8s. A. Young and others (Puttick’s), 1875, £5. Alfred Crampton (1896), 10 guineas.
Jonson’s (Ben) Works, 1640.
Benj. Worsley (1678), £1, 13s. 6d. Sir Edward Bysshe (1677), £1, 10s. Lord Bateman (1896), £8, 5s.
Spenser’s Faerie Queene, 1590-96, first edition.
Sir Edward Bysshe (1679), 6s. 2d. Lloyd and Raymund (1685), 1s. Ouvry (1882), £33. Alfred Crampton (1611), 1896, with additional leaves, £85.
Weever’s Funeral Monuments, 1631.
Two copies on