d first about 1600, though 'The Life and Death of Gamaliel Ratsey,
a Famous Thief of England,' was reprinted by Payne Collier. Mr. F. W.
Chandler's two volumes on 'The Literature of Roguery,' published in 1907,
will be of great assistance to you here; whilst Payne Collier's
'Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature' contains several
murder pamphlets. The Newgate Calendar is well known and may be had, in
varying states of completeness, of the booksellers from time to time,
together with the many accounts of famous murders and trials.

[Sidenote: Dictionaries.]

17. Dictionaries and Etymologies are subjects which generally engross the
attentions of 'curious antiquaries.' Some of the older dictionaries are
of great interest. A few years ago our book-hunter purchased in London
for half a crown a copy of Cooper's 'Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et
Britanniae,' a thick folio printed at London by Henry Bynneman in 1584.
It is bound in the original sheepskin, a portion of a vellum psalter
having been used to strengthen the joints. The worthy bishop's text is
delightful (Cooper died bishop of Winchester in 1594), the
interpretations being in black letter, and it is full of quaint conceits.
At the end is a biographical dictionary which certainly contains some
startling statements. Baret's 'Alvearie or Triple Dictionarie,' 1573, and
Rider's 'Bibliotheca Scholastica,' 1589, you may still come across, but
do not set your heart upon acquiring a copy of Huloet's 'Abcedarium
Anglico-Latinum' put forth at London in 1552. Perhaps the finest
collection of dictionaries amassed by any one collector in this country
was that of the reverend Dr. Skeat of Cambridge; but alas! at his death
it was partly dispersed.

[Sidenote: Drama.]

18. Shakespeareana has already been dealt with under heading No. 9, and
the bibliography of the Drama is a voluminous one. You will find the
following works of value to you at the outset, if this be the subject of
your choice. Hazlitt's 'Manual for the Collector and Amateur of Old
English Plays' was issued in 1892, whilst Mr. F. E. Schelling's
'Elizabethan Drama, 1558-1642,' appeared in two volumes, New York, in
1908. The second volume contains a useful bibliography. Mr. W. W. Greg's
'List of English Plays written before 1643 and printed before 1770' was
published by the Bibliographical Society in 1900. There is a
supplementary volume which deals with Masques, Pageants, and some
additional plays; it appeare