itions (all in octavo) in the original boards,
for as many pence; though the first edition, in duodecimo, undated, is
scarce. It was published in 1809, and has but fifty-four pages of verse.
The fourth edition appeared in 1811, though some copies are dated 1810,
and has one thousand and fifty-two lines of verse in eighty-five pages.
But the next year another edition was put forth containing eighteen
additional lines. For this (fifth) edition the title-page of the fourth
edition was used. It was not merely rigidly suppressed by the author, but
immediately prior to publication it was destroyed by him, and, so far as
I am aware, only one copy has, till now, been recovered.[72]

For Burns' 'Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect,' published at
Kilmarnock in 1786, you may have two hundred pounds at least; if in the
original boards, and perfect, considerably more. A copy has changed hands
at a thousand. Of Shelley's 'Alastor: or the Spirit of Solitude, and
other Poems,' octavo 1816, Keats' 'Endymion,' 1818, Fitzgerald's 'Omar
Khayyam,' published by Quaritch in 1859, and a large number of others,
you will learn from time to time. Mr. J. H. Slater's 'Early Editions
. . . of Modern Authors,' which appeared in 1894, will be of value to you,
though like all works which deal with current prices it now needs
revision. From the bibliographical standpoint it is excellent, but the
safest guides to mere market values are the quarterly records of
auction-sale prices entitled 'Book-Auction Records,' and the bi-monthly
publication known as 'Book-Prices Current' issued by Mr. Elliot Stock. In
addition there are bibliographies of almost all the greatest Victorian
writers.

There is no doubt that the early editions of the English classics will
get more and more valuable as time goes on. In the case of many it may be
years before any decided rise in their sale-room price takes place; but
as the number of book-collectors increases with the population, while the
number of copies of these _desiderata_ tends to become less owing to the
absorption of certain of them in the public libraries, so it is only
natural that increased competition should result in a corresponding
increase in their value.

The early editions of Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher, and of the later
Elizabethan and Stuart dramatists, which command but a few pounds to-day,
will run, in all probability, well into three figures during the next
half-century. A good copy of the firs