he unique tragedy of _Appius and Virginia_, 1575, as a
prodigy of negligent and ignorant execution on the part of the
original compositor. But to the same cause is due our still remaining
uncertainty as to the true reading of numerous places in Shakespeare
himself.

Our collectors, however, are not particularly solicitous to study the
present aspect of the matter, and the hunter for First Editions is by
no means likely to care an iota about the purity of the text, but may
be more apt to congratulate himself on the ownership of the genuine
old copy with all the errors of the press as vouchers for its
character. Who would exchange a second _Hamlet_ of 1604 for a first
one of 1603, simply because the former happens to contain as much
more, and the latter is little better than a _torso_?

The long uncertainty and insecurity of authors' rights, whatever may
be thought of the present position of the matter, led at a very early
date to the adoption of such safeguards against plagiarism as it was
in the power of specialists, at all events, to impose. Some time after
its original publication in 1530, we find John Palsgrave, compiler of
the _Eclaircissement de la Langue Francoise_, prohibiting the printer
from giving or selling copies to any one without his leave, lest his
profits as a teacher of the language should be prejudicially affected;
and so it was that preceptors often reserved the right of sale, and
dealt direct with buyers, and in one case (only a sample) a treatise
on Shorthand by Richard Weston (1770) is delivered to purchasers at
eighteenpence on the express condition that they shall not allow the
book to leave their own hands or premises.

CHAPTER X

Our failure to realise the requirements of Illustrated Books--The
French School--La Fontaine's _Contes et Nouvelles_,
1762--Imperfect conception of what constitutes a thoroughly
complete copy--The Crawford copy--Comparative selling values of
copies--The _Fables_ of the same author--Dorat--La
Borde--Beaumarchais--Contrast between the English and French
Schools--Process-printing--The _Edition de Luxe_--Its proper
destination and limit--The Illustrated Copy--Increasing
difficulty in forming it--Unsatisfactory character of the
majority of specimens--Analogy between the French taste in books
and in _vertu_--Temper of the foreign markets--The Anglo-American
collector--The Parisian _gout_--The famous mud-s