James Halliwell-Phillipps was a pioneering Shakespearean scholar. Working independently,
he built up great collections of early printed books. But his handling of them would
raise eyebrows today. He had no qualms about cutting out pages and pasting them
into scrapbooks, assembling a single complete copy of a book from surviving fragments,
and mixing real and facsimile pages.
For Halliwell-Phillipps, collecting books was a means to an end. He scoured the
country seeking out neglected sources which might shed light on the playwrightʼs
life. He bought many copies of early editions of the plays, to help him compare,
or collate, them with each other. As he wrote to the great Scottish antiquarian
and librarian David Laing, ʻIt is of such immense importance to me to have the early
quarto Shakespeares in my own hands for collation, I hope you will kindly excuse
my asking you to bear me in mind should you hear of any for sale, either perfect
or imperfect. I am willing to give the wildest prices.ʼ
In 1865, Halliwell-Phillipps sought Laingʼs help again with a particularly delicate
request. To aid him in his studies, he was making facsimiles of all the surviving
early editions of Shakespeareʼs plays. Of one edition, the 1600 second quarto of
Titus Andronicus, he could find no copy other than that kept in the library of the
University of Edinburgh. Might Laing help him to secure a loan of this exceptionally
rare and valuable item? Laing agreed to help, and the book was transported to Halliwell-Phillippsʼs
London home for three months in early 1866.
This generosity was not forgotten. Six years later, Halliwell-Phillipps wrote a
letter to the Principal of the University in which he declared, ʻI am anxious, with
your kind permission, to have the honour of founding a Shakespearian library in
the beautiful city of Edinburghʼ.
The University accepted, and became the proud custodian of an exceptional collection
of playbooks, including the Shakespeare quartos, and of 400 volumes of letters,
scrapbooks, working papers and manuscripts.