COLLIER

61 + [3]pp., 16mo. Disbound. In fair condition, on aged paper. The last three pages carry advertisements of works by Waugh and Benjamin Brierley. Waugh's investigations in 'a quiet tract of country on the eastern border of Lancashire, lying in a corner, formed by the junction of the rivers Mersey and Irwell', involves him in meetings with ordinary folk, whose speech in the local dialect is recorded. Uncommon: five copies on COPAC, variously dated to 1867 and 1868.

Collier was the author of a number of melodramas and farces in the period between the Boer War and the Great War, including one written in conjunction with F. H. Dudley, but little is to be discovered about him, with no mention of these three titles. All three items in fair condition, on aged paper, in aged and worn bindings. ONE: '"In the Hands of the Mormons" Or "The Mormon Peril" A Drama in FOUR acts written by Hal Collier'. [1] + 45pp., 4to. Stitched into grey paper wraps. With pencil emendations throughout, including extensive deletions.

128pp., 16mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in shiny yellow printed wraps with slight staining at head of front cover. The twelve-page 'Biographical Sketch' covers pp.3-16. It quotes the Rev. Baptist W. Noel as saying that Weaver 'has been preaching at Sheffield, and other towns, to multitudes of working men [...] he was, at one time, addicted to prize-fighting, and that he was never beaten in his life.

Both works first editions, and both in good condition, on aged paper. Bound together in late nineteenth-century red cloth half-binding, with marbled boards. Title on spine: 'COLLIER CONTROVERSY | H.R.H. | 1919'. Hamilton title in full: 'An Inquiry into the Genuineness of the Manuscript Corrections in Mr. J. Payne Collier's Annotated Shakspere, Folio, 1632; and of certain Shaksperian Documents likewise published by Mr. Collier'. [4] + 155pp., 4to. With frontispiece and two plates, one of them double-page. Collier title in full: 'Mr. J. Payne Collier's reply to Mr. N. E. S.

4pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Lacy begins by thanking the recipient for 'the kindly spirit that animates your favor received to day. '[A]t once and without Recitation' he states his 'extreme willingness to abandon the continuation of Heywood' in the recipient's favour. He will 'rejoice in any slight influence I can exert towards a guarantee to induce you to persevere'. Lacy's only wish is for 'the plays to be completed', and the recipient 'could certainly advance irresistible claims to a far greater amount of support than any one else'.

2 pp, 4to. Forty lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of mount adhering to blank areas of the reverse of the leaf. A playful, jaunty letter containing valuable personal and family information. He was pleased to learn from 'Mr Shaw of Lees (who desires his complimts)' that the recipient is 'not only in the land of the living, but in the business of the Excise, and still raps at the ends of Barrels, and takes dimensions of bungs & diameters as usual'. Asks after his wife, and 'how long you had been a Cheshire man'.

4to, 2 pp. Sixteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He congratulates her on her 'success in the Saturday Westminster Essay Competition'. He is grateful to her for 'guessing that I should be interested in this work of yours after having plied my scalpel upon your novel "The Sword of Love".' He regrets that 'for many a long year' he has 'done no general reviewing outside the publisher's office. There the flood of MSS. that poured in furnished effectual occupation.

12mo, 15 pp. A sheet folded three times to make an unopened quire. Unbound and unstitched. Text clear and complete. Fair, on foxed and lightly-discoloured paper. The published version contained engravings of 'Lewis Theobald, George Steevens, Samuel Ireland, S. W. H. Ireland, John Payne Collier, and the Ireland forgeries caricature by James Gillray'. Uncommon: COPAC lists copies at the British Library, Oxford, National Library of Wales, Birmingham, Leeds, and the University of London.

28 pages, 8vo. 14 leaves, the last a blank. Paginated [1-3] 4-26 [1-2]. Unbound and stitched as issued. In very good condition though grubby and with one dogeared corner. Brief mention (p.7) of John Payne Collier's discovery of 'The life of Robin Goodfellow' in the library of the Earl of Ellesmere, and of 'Mr. Halliwell'. No copy in the British Library.