MS in English on paper, Oxford or London, ca. 1586-1600, 1 f., 18x12 cm, single column, (16x10 cm), 29-32 lines of blank verse in a good, fluent, full English secretary script, ruled around in red ink with speakers' names outside the rules, no dividers but with stage directions boxed.

Binding: Oxford, 1586 or later, calf with triple blind fillets, original sewing on 4 cords with characteristic Oxford hatch-marks in blind on the lower edges, with the Shakespeare leaf as 2 endleaves, now separated.

Context: Endleaves of Homer: Odyssea, 3rd edition, C. Gessner, ed., Genève 1586, Adams 794.

Provenance: 1. Bloomsbury, London, 14.1.1988:27; 2. Patrick King, Stratford, Bulletin 15(1989):96; 3. Quaritch cat. 1120(1989):89; 4. Pickering & Chatto, London, cat. 676:105, and cat. 693:19; 5. Sotheby's 21.7.1992:20; 4. Quaritch and Pickering & Chatto, London.

Commentary: The only extant contemporary literary parallel or Actor's part in manuscript of any of Shakespeare's plays. Only 2 more manuscripts from Shakespeare's lifetime are known: (1) 2 stanzas of Venus and Adonis copied by Henry Collins before Dec. 1596, in Cambridge University Library, MS 3.29 F. 63v, and (2) the curious 'Dering Manuscript', ca. 1613-23, conflating 1 Henry IV, and 2 Henry IV by selecting consecutive scenes, in Folger-Shakespeare Library.

Published: Freeman, Arthur: The "Tapster Manuscript": An Analogue of Shakespeare's Henry the Fourth Part One; in: Peter Beal and Jeremy Griffiths, eds: English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700. Vol. 6. London 1997, pp. 93-105.

Mentioned: H.R. Woudhuysen: Manuscripts at Auction: January 1989 to December 1990; in: Peter Beal and Jeremy Griffiths, eds: English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700. Vol. 3. London 1992.

Exhibited: The Bibliophile Society of Norway's 75th anniversary. Bibliofilklubben 75 år. Jubileumsutstilling Bok og Samler, Universitetsbliblioteket 27.2 - 26.4.1997.

MS in Norwegian on paper, Oslo, Norway, July-August 1894 (text 1) and 10 March 1895 (text 2), 2+2 pp., 22x14 cm and 18x11 cm, single column (19x11 cm and 14x11 cm), 22 +16 lines in a regular cursive script, autograph, signed (text 2).

Context: Text 1 is Ibsen's rewriting of the crossed out section in quire 10 of the working autograph in National Library, NBO MS quarto 1117b. The final MS of text 1 for printing is in København: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Collinske Samling 262, IV, 2. There are a number of further autograph Ibsen letters, documents and inscribed editions and photographs in The Schøyen Collection, which also holds the world's largest collection of text and binding variants of the Norwegian and Danish first editions and later editions until 1906, about 1,000 volumes, all different.

Provenance: 1. Henrik Ibsen (1894 & 1895); 2. Text 2: Olaus Olsen, Bodø and Oslo (1895); 3. Text 1: Jonas Skougaard, Oslo; 4. Bjørn Hansson, Oslo (-1995); 5. Arild and Morten Hansson, Norway (1995-1996); 6: Damms Antikvariat cat. 650, Auksjon 18.4.1996:125; 7. Text 2: Acquired May 1996.

Commentary: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Norwegian playwright. As for his contemporary plays, he is today internationally recognised as the foremost dramatist since Shakespeare. .

Published: København, Gyldendal, 1894, but in a different version than in the present MS. Henrik Ibsens Skrifter, vol.9, Oslo, 2009, pp.434-435. Text 2: Henrik Ibsens Skrifter, vol.15, Oslo, 2010, pp.294-295.

MS in Norwegian on paper, Ås, Norway, 1904, 21+2 pp., 22x14 cm, single column, (21x13 cm), 29+20 lines in Norwegian cursive script, autograph, signed.

Provenance: 1. Knut Hamsun, Ås, Norway (1904); 2. Editor Brinchmann, Oslo (1904); 3. Kringsjaa, Oslo, Norway (1904); 4. Damms Antikvariat, Oslo, Norway (-1988); 5. Hans Svenne, Norway (1988-1998).

Commentary: Knut Hamsun (1859-1952), Norwegian author, Nobel prize in 1920.

Published: Kringsjaa, vol. XXIII, no. 4, pp. 213-225; 29 Feb. 1904.

MS in Norwegian on paper, Oslo, Norway, 1912, 119 ff., 26x20 cm, single column (20x16 cm), 23 lines in cursive script, autograph, signed.

Binding: Oslo, Norway, ca. 1950-1970, red leather, gilt spine, sewn on 4 cords.

Provenance: 1. Sigrid Undset (1912); 2. Publisher, Oslo (1912); 3. Bjørn Hansson, Oslo (-1995); 4. Arild and Morten Hansson, Norway (1995-1996); 5. Damms Antikvariat cat. 650, Auksjon 18.4.1996:145.

Commentary: Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) Norwegian author. She received the Nobel prize in 1928. A.C. Svarstad was her husband.

his is the printer's copy.

Published: Kristiania, Aschehoug, 1912.

MS in Norwegian on paper, Oslo, Norway, 1925, 116 pp., 28x22 cm, single column, (25x21 cm), 27 lines in cursive script, autograph, signed.

Provenance: 1. Oskar Braaten, Oslo (ca. 1925-1936); 2. Per F. Meyer collection, Oslo (-1998); 3. Cappelens Antikvariat cat. 29.3.1998:190.

Commentary: With a dedication to the winner, since the MS was used as a price in a lottery in October 1936 while the author was the manager of Det Norske Teatret, Oslo. Oskar Braaten (1881-1939), Norwegian author and playwright. The present play is his principal work together with "Ungen", MS 2117/1, both among the most celebrated modern plays in Norway.

Published: Oslo, Aschehoug, 1925.