Three years later, viz., in 1870, James Spedding published a thin
little volume entituled "A Conference of Pleasure," in which he gave a
full size Facsimile of the original of the outside page which is here
shewn in _reduced type_ facsimile. He also gave a few particulars of the
MSS. themselves.
In 1904 Mr. Frank J. Burgoyne brought out a Collotype Facsimile of every
page that now remains of the collection of MSS. in an edition limited to
250 copies I a fine Royal Quarto at the price of L4 4s. 0d. O f the MSS.
mentioned on the cover nine now remain, and of these, six are certainly
by Francis Bacon; the first being written by him for a masque or
"fanciful devise" which Mr. Spedding thinks was presented at the Court of
Elizabeth in 1592.
The list of contents was written upon this outside page about 1597, and
among those original contents which are now missing were Richard II. and
Richard III. Mr. Spedding was satisfied that these were the so-called
Skakespearean plays. There are also the tiles of various other works to
which it is not now necessary to allude, but the reader's attention
should be especially directed to the (so-called) scribblings.
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