Mary, 1559, in which the
_language is much modernised_." Shakespeare, edit. 1803,
vol. xviii. p. 85-6.]

[Footnote 64: A singular story is "extant" about the
purchase of the late Duke of Roxburgh's fine copy of the
first edition of Shakespeare. A friend was bidding for him
in the sale-room: his Grace had retired to a distance, to
view the issue of the contest. Twenty guineas and more were
offered, from various quarters, for the book: a slip of
paper was handed to the Duke, in which he was requested to
inform his friend whether he was "to go on bidding"--His
Grace took his pencil, and wrote underneath, by way of reply--

----lay on Macduff!
And d----d be he who first cries, 'Hold, enough!'

Such a spirit was irresistible, and bore down all
opposition. His Grace retired triumphant, with the book
under his arm.]

It must not, however, be forgotten that if first editions are, in some
instances, of great importance, they are in many respects superfluous,
and an incumbrance to the shelves of a collector; inasmuch as the
labours of subsequent editors have corrected their errors, and
superseded, by a great fund of additional matter, the necessity of
consulting them. Thus, not to mention other instances (which present
themselves while noticing the present one), all the fine things which
Colomies and Remannus have said about the rarity of La Croix du
Maine's Bibliotheque, published in 1584, are now unnecessary to be
attended to, since the ample and excellent edition of this work by De
La Monnoye and Juvigny, in six quarto volumes, 1772, has appeared. Nor
will any one be tempted to hunt for Gesner's Bibliotheca of 1545-8,
whatever may be its rarity, who has attended to Morhof's and Vogt's
recommendation of the last and best edition of 1583.

VII. _True Editions._ Some copies of a work are struck off with
deviations from the usually received ones, and, though these
deviations have neither sense nor beauty to recommend them, [and
indeed are principally _defects_] yet copies of this description are
eagerly sought after by collectors of a certain class! This particular
pursuit may therefore be called another, or the seventh, symptom of
the Bibliomania. The note below [65] will furnish the reader with a
few anecdotes relating to it.

[Footnote 65: _Caesar. Lug. Bat._ 1635, 12mo. _Printed by
Elzevir._

In the Bibliotheca