Sir Henry Irving gave £100 for Dr. Johnson’s copy of the second folio, which contains many notes in the margin by Theobald and Johnson. Osborn the bookseller bought it at Theobald’s death and presented it to Johnson. Samuel Ireland gave £1 for it at Johnson’s sale in 1785. It wants title and part of another leaf.54
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:—
B. Worsley (1678), £1, 8s. 6d. Smallwood (1684), 15s. 6d. Richard Wright, M.D. (1787), £1, 1s. Allen (1795), £6, 6s. Steevens (1800), £8, 8s. Roxburghe (1812), £35. Stanley (1813), £16, 16s. Broadley (1832), £11, 5s. William Combes (1837), £5, 7s. 6d. (some leaves inlaid). Stowe (Duke of Buckingham), 1849, £35 (margin of portrait mended, title lined). Lord Stuart de Rothesay, £50 (tall copy, with duplicate titles). Miss Currer (1862), £43, 10s. (original calf). Addington, £130 (large and fine copy). S. Daniel (1864), £46. H. Perkins (1873), £105 (1/8-inch taller than Daniel’s copy). Beresford-Hope (1882), £72, 10s. (portrait and title inlaid). Ouvry (1882), £116. Earl of Aylesford (1888), £93 (13½ in. by 8 in.). F. Perkins (1889), £100. Halliwell Phillipps (1889), £24 (title mounted, portrait, verses, and last leaf mounted). Brayton Ives (1891), 950 dollars (£190), portrait from fourth edition. Hawley (1894), £205. Hildyard, 1895 (with two title-pages), £280. Misc. Coll. (Sotheby’s), 1895, original calf, £350.