EARLY ENGLISH PLAYS.
ITo THE EDITOR or THE " firtuaroa."1
Sin,—The great. sale of Lord Mostyn's collection of early English plays which will be held at Messrs. Sotheby's new galleries on March 20th and list offers a great opportunity to a wealthy man to secure for the nation some unique treasure; which ought not to be allowed to be buried again in privets collections or to be taken out of the country. There is littie
merchants, bankers, fie.) will make a point of trying to get bold of the collection, or at any rate the cream of it. They have been of recent years at sales in this country the chief buyers of this class of books, to our lose. An appeal should be made to our rich men to try to keep this particular collection here.
There are three hundred and sixty-four lots to be offered and these include amongst other very valuable works the following: The only known copies of Henry Medwall'e Fulgene and Lucrece (c. 1520, one of the earliest English remedied). and William Wager's Though is as good as a Feast (e. 1560-6). Unrecorded editions of Fedele and Fortunio (1585, the founda- tion play of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona); Impatient Poverty (n.d.); Jack Juggler (c. 1562); and R. Wever's Lusty Jurentus. Arden of Ferersham (1693); R. Armin's Two Holds of Morn Clacks (1602); Clyomon and Clamydes (1599); Faire Rm. (1631); U. Falwell's Like will to Like (1587); T. Ingelend's Disobedient Child 1565); Jacob and Rsau (1568); Mucedorus (1610); Monday and Chiale's Robin Hood (1610); Nero (1607); New Custom (1573); Nice Wanton (c. 1560); No-Body and Some-Body (n.d.); Pilotus (1612); T. Preston's Cambiees (1569); Chronicle History of Ring Leir (1605, the precursor of Shakespeare's Ring Lear); Sir Gyles adnlecaP (1606); J. Still's Grimmer Gorton's Needle (1575); Thersytee (e. 1560); Trial of Treasure (1567); G. Wapull's Tyde Taryeth no Man (1576); N. Woode's Conflict of Conscience (1581); Youth, first and second editions. Also plays by or attri- buted to Shakespeare, including A Yorkshire Tragedy (1619); fir John Oldcastle (1619); Pericles (1635); The Merchant of Venice (1697); and some rare works of Beaumont and Fletcher, G. Chapman, R. Davenport, T. Day, T. Dekker, J. Ford, R. Greene, T. Heywood, Ben Joneon, C. Marlowe, J. Marston, P. Messinger, T. Middleton, T. Nabbes, 0. Peale, J. Shirley, soil It. Wilson.
An offer to purchase the whole collection by private treaty might prevent its dispersal. This course was followed by an American collector in the ease of a very valuable portion of the Huth Library, and is no doubt open in the present case to
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