Scott and Lockhart began in 1823 or 1824 to prepare an edition of Shakspere. In Jan., 1825, Constable wrote to a London bookseller: "It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the first sheet of Sir Walter Scott's Shakspeare is now in type ... This I expect will be a first-rate property." (_Constable's Correspondence_, II, 344.) At the time of Constable's bankruptcy in 1826 there was a disagreement in regard to the ownership of the property. Scott wrote to Lockhart, May 30, 1826, "What do you about Shakspeare? Constable's creditors seem desirous to carry it on. Certainly their bankruptcy breaks the contract. For me _c'est egal_: I have nothing to do with the emoluments, and I can with very little difficulty discharge my part of the matter, which is the Prolegomena, and Life and Times." (Lang's _Lockhart_, I, 409.) In 1827 the question of carrying on the work was still undecided, and it was also mentioned in a letter in 1830. (Lang's _Lockhart_ II, 13 and 59). The project was ultimately abandoned, and the fate of that part of the work which was actually in print is unknown. In the Barton Collection in the Boston Public Library is preserved what is perhaps a unique copy of three volumes of the set of ten that Scott and Lockhart undertook to prepare. But as the books are bound up without title-pages, and as the commentary contains nothing that would determine its authorship, the attribution is probable rather than certain. These volumes include twelve of the comedies. On the fly-leaf of one of them is a note written by Mr. Rodd, a London bookseller. He says: "I purchased these three volumes from a sale at Edinburgh. They were entered in the catalogue as 'Shakespeare's Works, edited by Sir Walter Scott and Lockhart, vols. ii, in, iv, all published, _unique_'." It was not positively known that such a work had been planned until the publication of Constable's _Correspondence_ in 1874. At that time Justin Winsor wrote a letter to the _Boston Advertiser_ (March 21, 1874) in which he said: "The account of the Barton collection, which was printed fifteen years ago, contained the earliest public mention, I believe, of the supposition that Scott ever engaged in such a work, which this life of Constable now renders certain. These later corroborative statements give a peculiar interest to the volumes which are now in this library and which are perhaps the only ones of the edition now in existence." The introductions to the plays are each only a page or two long, and are mainly, like the notes, compilations. The book corresponds fairly well with the description given in _Constable_. (See Vol. III, pp. 183, 193, 237-8, 241, 242, 244, 246, 305, 321, 442. See also Lang's