The Good Natur'd Man
Within a year of its publication in 1768 Goldsmith's first play ran through five
impressions, two of which are unlabelled, two called a "New Edition," and one described, not
inappropriately, as a "Fifth Edition." The first was announced in the Public
Advertiser on Friday 5 February and another promised in the same paper on the following
Tuesday.
The first large impression of the new comedy of the Good Natured Man, written by
Dr. Goldsmith, being sold off on Saturday last, a new edition will be published this
afternoon at three o'clock; when those ladies and gentlemen that were then disappointed of
their books may be supplied by W. Griffin, in Catherine Street in the Strand.
Since the
reference here is specifically to a "new edition" I presume that the one offered at 3 p.m. was
the earliest printing so distinguished on its title, or the third impression in this sequence.
If so, the second, undesignated impression must have been prepared as a supplement to the
"large impression" and may therefore have appeared on Saturday, the day after publication.
That it was so designed is evident from its construction, representing for five gatherings
(A-C, I-K) an overprint of the first run through the press, for one (L) a mixture of states
identical with those in the original printing, and for the remaining five (D-H) a new
impression from standing type. Only in this last section are there any signs of reprinting,
evident here both in the press figures and in textual corrections.
[3]
Following its notice of the one "New Edition" the Advertiser has no
other reference until the 22d of February, when it lists another "New Edition, being the
fourth" or, in our terminology, the fourth in the series of impression. Both of these "New"
and the later "Fifth Edition" were reimpressed throughout and contain numerous revisions.
Through all impressions the most extensive revision occurs in the
final
gathering L
2. Here there are two series of alterations, one affecting
the first two immediately related impressions, the other the last and separate three. In the
one sequence the compositor juggles a note which Goldsmith belatedly supplied for the epilogue
on page [75], appending it first at the bottom of the page (state
b),
then—to justify the register—transposing it with the last four lines of verse to
the top of the next page (state
c), and finally—to realign the
note with its reference—returning it to [75] and displacing four more lines of verse to
the next page (state
d). Since with the exception of
b all of these shifts involve both sides of the final leaf, it is obvious that, with
the same exception, none of these alterations were made at press. Otherwise, in half-sheet
imposition, the perfection of sheets on the same forme would produce here (as in the other
play) a combination of two unrelated states.
After settling the troublesome note, the compositor provided for the later impressions a
second setting (B) to replace some other matter that had previously occupied the available
space in chase L. For the imposition of quarters in octavo the customary layout, as described
by Stower,[4] is in parallel ranges
or, in this circumstance: When the sheets are perfected end to end, according to normal procedure, the letter of one setting is
always kept apart from the other. For the third impression, however, this sheet apparently was
perfected side to side, a maneuver which can be permitted only when, as
in this case, the letter is in duplicate. Resulting from this are two further alterations in
the gathering, one with the outer "forme" of A perfected upon the inner of B:
state e A73 B74 B75 A76
the other with the outer of B perfected upon the inner of A:
state f B73 A74 A75 B76
Both of these occur, I believe, only in the third (or first "New") impression.
In the last two impressions each of these settings was imposed separately, B alone,
apparently, being used for the fourth (state g) and A
alone for the fifth (state
h). In each of these the final line of the
epilogue, previously reading
And view with favour, the Good-natur'd Man.
is altered to read
And be each critick the Good-natur'd Man.