of a folio Shakespeare (second edition), loaded with ancient
manuscript emendations, in 1849. His account of this book was
simple and plausible. He chanced, one day, to be in the shop of Mr.
Rudd, the bookseller, in Great Newport Street, when a parcel of
second-hand volumes arrived from the country. When the parcel was
opened, the heart of the Bibliophile began to sing, for the packet
contained two old folios, one of them an old folio Shakespeare of
the second edition (1632). The volume (mark this) was "much
cropped," greasy, and imperfect. Now the student of Mr. Hamilton's
'Inquiry' into the whole affair is already puzzled. In later days,
Mr. Collier said that his folio had previously been in the
possession of a Mr. Parry. On the other hand, Mr. Parry (then a
very aged man) failed to recognise his folio in Mr. Collier's, for
HIS copy was "cropped," whereas the leaves of Mr. Collier's example
were NOT mutilated. Here, then ('Inquiry,' pp. 12, 61), we have
two descriptions of the outward aspect of Mr. Collier's dubious
treasure. In one account it is "much cropped" by the book-binder's
cruel shears; in the other, its unmutilated condition is contrasted
with that of a copy which has been "cropped." In any case, Mr.
Collier hoped, he says, to complete an imperfect folio he possessed,
with leaves taken from the folio newly acquired for thirty
shillings. But the volumes happened to have the same defects, and
the healing process was impossible. Mr. Collier chanced to be going
into the country, when in packing the folio he had bought of Rudd he
saw it was covered with manuscript corrections in an old hand.
These he was inclined to attribute to one Thomas Perkins, whose name
was written on the fly-leaf, and who might have been a connection of
Richard Perkins, the actor (flor. 1633) The notes contained many
various readings, and very numerous changes in punctuation. Some of
these Mr. Collier published in his 'Notes and Emendations' (1852),