ITEMS FROM THE BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES
Collectors interested in the Restoration Drama will find much in Messrs. Pickering and Chatto's catalogue to engage their attention. Sir William Davenant is represented by First Editions of The Siege of Rhodes (1656), The Cruell Brother (1630), The Unfortunate Lovers (1643). A copy of the first collected edition of Davenant's Works (1673) is offered for sale by Mr. Francis Edwards. Aureng-Zebe (1676), the opera King Arthur (1691), and The Duke of Guise (1683) are all first editions of Dryden. Pordage's Siege of Babylon (first edition, 1678) is priced at £4 4s.; Sir Charles Sedley's Antony and Cleopatra (1677) at £8 8s. Shadwell is well represented by his Virtuoso (first edition, 1676), a comedy that was regrettably not included in the "Mermaid" series reprint of the dramatist's works, The Lancashire Witches (1682), and Bury Fair (1689).
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There are moments when one's literary sense gets the better of one's purely bibliophilous instinct—moments when a profound irritation seizes one that people should be so stupid as to collect books because they are rare and not because they are worth reading. One wonders, for instance, if human labour and ingenuity might not be expended in some more profitable undertaking than the compilation of a catalogue of about one hundred-and-fifty editions of The Picture of Dorian Gray, bibliographically described. Collectors of the works of that second-rate literary man who was the author of this Dorian Gray may be interested to hear that this catalogue is at present being prepared at "The Bungalow," 8 Abercorn Place, London, N.W.8, where they will also find a number of Wilde's books, in every kind and shape of edition, for sale.
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A curiosity of 1890 literature, in the shape of The Blue Calendar: Praises of Twelve Saints, written by John Gray, may also be seen at "The Bungalow." This little book, by the author of Silverpoints, was privately printed at 92 Mount Street in 1896, and may be bought for two guineas.
A. L. H.