so far as we are just now concerned, is the change which
has taken place in the value of the quartos. We give below a tabulated
list of first editions, in which this change will be seen at a glance:

Former Recent
Price. Price.
L s. d. L s. d.
'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' 1818 18 0 0 385 0 0
'Much Ado About Nothing,' {1797 7 10 0
{1818 17 17 0 267 10 0
'Love's Labour Lost,' 1818 40 10 0 316 10 0
'A Midsummer Night's Dream' {1805 2 2 0
{1818 12 10 0 116 0 0
'The Merchant of Venice' {1815 9 9 0
{1818 22 1 0 270 0 0
'King Richard II.,' 1598,[143:A] 1800 4 14 6 108 3 0
'2 Henry IV.,' 1797 (one leaf MS.) 8 8 0 225 0 0
'Henry V.,' 1818 5 7 6 211 0 0
'1 Henry VI.,' 1801 38 7 0 50 0 0
'Richard III.,' 1818 33 0 0 351 15 0
'Troilus and Cressida,' 1800 5 10 0 110 0 0
'Romeo and Juliet,' 1800 6 0 0 160 0 0
'Hamlet,' 1812 4 13 0 36 0 0
'King Lear,' 1800 28 0 0 70 0 0
'Othello' (1622), 1818 56 14 0 155 0 0
'Pericles,' 1812 1 15 0 40 0 0
'Lucrece' 21 0 0 250 0 0
'Venus and Adonis'[143:B] (Malone's copy) 25 0 0 315 0 0
'Poems' 70 0 0
'Sonnets' {1800 3 10 0
{1812 21 0 0 230 15 0

[Illustration: _Title-page of the First Edition of 'The Compleat
Angler.'_]

What is true of the Shakespeare quartos and folios is also true in a
slightly less accentuated degree of the first editions of the sixteenth
and seventeenth century poets and dramatists. Dibdin describes a Mr.
Byng as having purchased the only known copy of Clement Robinson's
'Handefull of Pleasant Delites,' 1584, at a bookstall for 4d.; at his
sale this 'Handefull' was sold for 25 guineas to the Duke of
Marlborough, at