P n r mni l e repri t f om the Alu Week y of Dec emb r 8 , 1 9 1 l 0 0 0 0 D , ) ) e ) 7 The Elizabetha n Clu D 6 n On Wednesday evening, ecember , the ew home of the C Elizabethan lub , which is pictured above , was Opened for ‘ . T w the use of its members here ere no formal ceremonies , but a large ma'ority of those already elected , who live within H reach of New aven , were present to inspect the club house , 1 2 C S No . 3 ollege treet, and to see the first exhibition of ’ the rare volumes , prints and paintings contained in the club s A lib rary . public exhibition o f the first editions was held in the C hittenden Library on Thursday in conn ection with the H e o e t L A New aven m eting of the C nn c icut ibrary ssoci a tion . The general public and undergraduates were invited to this exhibition . It is not quite six months since the organization came into S p ossession of the C ollege treet property, and in that time extensive repairs have been made in the house so that it may properly serve as the home of the association , which di ff ers in many important respects from any club or society A heretofore known at Yale , or indeed at any merican uni ' Th E liz betha n C lu versity . e a b, which was formed to pro mote in the community a wider appreciation of literature and ” o f s ocial intercourse f ounded upon such appreciation , is in no sense a part of the traditional Yale undergraduate secret I t . socie y system t is , rather, an open club for the use of its chosen undergraduate and graduate members , who may or may not belong to existing societies , together with a certain m number of Faculty embers , elected from the teaching force of Yale University, and a limited number of honorary mem bers , among whom will be included scholars occupying places i the th i s i l c l n faculties of o er n titut ons , as wel as private o lectors and bibliophiles of note in this country and abroad . — _ 3 r - c ( 1 While the membership of this unique Yale literary club ’ b l m a the will na tura lly: e i ited, s a n case of any such social ' ' za ti n Si o f int s o n organi o , t is ere t t ote that the members are at liberty to bring in guests at any time, and the students and alumni of both the C ollege and the S cientific S chool A s are eligible fo r election . a result of these tw o provisions in the regulations the Elizabethan C lub will be in reality a ' University organization , and its collections, library and work rooms ” W ill be available for all members of the University The who are interested in them . club house , situated on C S S ollege treet near the corner of Wall treet, is ideally located for the daily use of members and their friends , and it is the general expectation that it will be largely used , not only in the afternoon and evenings , but als o in the intervals between recitations . The qualifications set for membership cannot be very easily defined , but in a general way are those which obtain in any club fo rmed for the use of men o f discriminating tastes and I appreciations . t has been suggested by some observers that the Elizabethan C lub will be a miniature combination of the ’ C G . entury , the rolier and the Players clubs of New York Perhaps this will best indicate the desired character of its C ’ membership . Under the Elizab ethan lub s standards the mere fact that a student has written for any of the under r ha s graduate publications , o become an editor of one of them , will not entitle him to membership unless , with literary ability , he possesses the rather u ndefina ble qualities of originality and individuality which combine to make a medium of s ocial The intercourse of distinction . selection of all membe rs , honorary, Faculty , graduate, or undergraduate , is to be in the hands of a committee on admissions , and elections will be made from time to time , rather than at fixed intervals . N ot more than twenty men may be chosen from any one C lass (graduate or undergraduate) in the C ollege or the Scientific S chool , but undergraduates may b e elected to membership in S . S ophomore , Junior or enior year _ _ 4 While enough has been said perhaps in a ge neral way to show the unique features of this Yale institution , any article dealing with the Elizabethan C lub would be incomplete with out some description at least of its wonderful collection of first editions and rare volumes of the Elizabethan and S tuart periods ; for it is literally around these that the club has been built . When the idea of the organization was first b A S C broached y lexander mith ochran , who later became one of the incorporators of the association , he announced his desire to give to the University for the club ’ s library certain first editions of S hakespeare and of other authors from his To c own collections . these gifts were later added pur hases made by him through the University at the H o e sale in New s York last pring, and he has now still further enriched the ’ H club s library by acquiring for it, in advance of the uth sale i L n ondon , the no teworthy Shakespeare item s which had aroused the interest and enthusiasm of collectors all over ' A The the world . s a result the collections o f Elizabethan C lub of Yale University are already of the greatest inter , A national importance , and occupy the first place in merican collections on this sub'ect . ’ TH E ELIZ AB ETH A N C LU B s RARE BOOK S Among the rare books and first editions now in the club ’ s library or on their way thither, special mention may be made s o of the early Engli h m ralities and interludes , all of them Th ter lu de ma ni es tin the extremely rare . e earliest is the I n f g c hie ro mis o G d 1 8 f p es f o , 53 , written by Bishop John Bale to set forth the Reformed opinions and to attack the Roman ’ ; T party here is no place of publication or printer s name , but it was probably issued at Basel by Nicholas of Bamberg . T H h hen comes John eywood , t e epigrammatist , singer and H III la player on the virginals under enry V , with his P y c a lled the o ur In t e 1 F P . this in erlude , produced betw en 543 1 and 547, a Peddler , a Pardoner , a Palmer , and a Potecary he try to tell t greatest lie, and when the Pa lmer says he never saw a woman out of temper the victory is awarded E . O f H is tor o Ja c o b a nd s a u to him the y f , printed in 1 568, n only three other copies are known . O the title page are ' h T e Partes and names of the Players , who are to be con i red H i s de to be ebrews , and so should be a ppa ra led with ’ A tie d e e l . a nt a n me k Gr s l ttire John Phillip s P i , taken from - B occaccio , is one of the very rarest pre Shakespearean come n H H dies and is unknow to alliwell , azlitt , C ollier, and L . h owndes T e book was printed by C olwell , whose press ran 1 62 1 1 The C from 5 to 57 . one named o mm on C o nditi ons V 1 6 (after the name of the ice ) was licensed in 57 , and its rarity may be seen from the statement of C arew H azlitt in 1 8 2 9 , that the o nly copy known to exist is now in the col D D - lection of the uke of evonshire, and wants the title page . The Yale copy is complete . ’ The club has the first edition (1 55 1 ) of More s Utopia ’ S a i ue n C in English ; the first editions of penser s F ry ' e , om la ints C o li u on p , and n C lo t; the extraordinarily rare first editi ’ of Bacon s E ss a ys (sold at the H uth sale last month for the first complete edition of the same work ; and A dv m e L In R eturn the first of the a nce nt of ea rning . the ’ r a rna s s us . C f om P , acted by the students in S t John s ollege , 1 602 S C ambridge, in , there are allusions to hakespeare , and The quotations from his works . Elizabethan C lub copy has a contemporary bookseller ’ s advertising slip at the end of the u The T prolog e, and is probably unique in this respect .