Prospectus and list of subscribers to ''The National Shakespeare. A Fac-simile of the Text of the First Folio of 1623. Illustrated by Sir J. Noel Paton, R.S.A.' [With Autograph Note by the editor Clarke.]

Clarke is a forgotten Shakespeare editor, there being no reference to him (nor any copy of this item) on the COPAC or the Folger online catalogue. A bankrupt and bigamist (he was 'married' five times), he fathered 33 or 34 children, and worked in the booktrade as a commerical traveller and entrepreneur. 4to, 10 pp. One central horizontal fold. Fair, on lightly-aged paper with a little marking to the outer pages. Date in type at end of list of subscribers, 'AUGUST, 1894.', followed by a short note by 'A. CLARKE' of 'SHROTONVILLE, WAVERLEY PARK, S.E.' Final page carries a 'Copy of Letters [by Richard R. Holmes and Derek W. Keppel, Equerry] received by Mr. A. Clarke, by command of Her Majesty the Queen, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, and H.R.H. The Duke of York.' Inscribed at head of first page: 'With A. Clarke's Comps. either order filled up and sent on will meet with attention and kindly say how often the vols over are to be delivered: -'. The prospectus, written in the fullsome style of the period, covers the first two pages, and contains a reference to 'the remarkable theory brought forward by an American critic that the numerous and surprising typographical errors, which have long been considered its chief blemishes, are in fact essential portions of an elaborate cypher by means of which the plays convey, besides their obvious meaning, a second or hidden narrative bearing upon the vexed question of their authorship, which this writer is inclined to attribute not to William Shakespeare but to Lord Bacon'. The list of subscribers, in double column in small print, headed by the Queen and other members of the royal family, runs to six and a half pages.