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III
As Greg remarked, the second section of the book (sheets H through L) is set in a slightly different letter from that used in the first section, a fact which suggests that it was composed by a workman different from the two working there. Unfortunately in this section there are few of the typographical peculiarities of the kind found in the first; nevertheless, there is enough evidence available to permit an estimate of the probable order of the setting of the formes.
The pattern of running titles indicates that, with the exception of sheet L, the method of composition employed in the second section was the same as that employed in the first. Unless a press delay is hypothecated, the order of imposition (and probably of composition also) must have been either:
The analysis of the printing of the first section of the book indicated that the method of composition by the prior setting of alternate formes of succeeding sheets could be employed by one compositor. To ascertain whether or not there was indeed only one man at work in sheets H through L and whether S's or T's characteristics appear there, spelling evidence must again be adduced. A total of thirty-one variant spellings in the play was tested by the method advocated by Hinman[22] and used by such investigators as Williams[23] and Brown.[24] Of the thirty-one words, eight were found to be significant, but of this number some were of greater value than others for the purpose at hand. The pattern of their occurrence indicates that the
B-F/G3 | G1-2v/G3v-4v | H-L | |
againe | 13 | 1 | 10 |
agen | 5 | 5 | 9 |
blood | 13 | 4 | 0 |
bloud | 0 | 0 | 9 |
deere | 5 | 0 | 1 |
deare | 3 | 1 | 4 |
eye | 17 | 4 | 3 |
eie | 6 | 0 | 5 |
safty/safety | 2 | 1 | 0 |
safetie | 1 | 0 | 4 |
sweete | 5 | 3 | 1 |
sweet | 2 | 0 | 3 |
to (i.e., also) | 0 | 2 | 0 |
too | 0 | 1 | 8 |
yeare | 7 | 2 | 1 |
yeere | 0 | 0 | 2 |
From this tabulation it is clear that the case for the presence of Compositor U rests largely on the spelling of bloud as opposed to blood. The other spellings, although weak as evidence in themselves, tend to confirm the division suggested by the bloud spellings; the presence in sheet H of deare, eie, and safetie permits the addition of this sheet to U's stint even though bloud does not occur there. A cluster of againe and eye spellings in sheet L is somewhat disconcerting since both are S's preferred forms, but L also contains three bloud spellings and for this reason the entire sheet is assigned to U. Indeed, the consistency of the typography of the last four sheets and the spelling evidence lead to the conclusion that the second section was set without assistance by one compositor. He is distinguished from S and T by his strong bloud preference and by less pronounced preference for eie, safetie, sweet, and yeere. He differs from T alone in showing no preference for either agen or againe, in preferring honour to honor (his stint contains seventeen honour and two honor spellings), in preferring too to to, and possibly in preferring young to yong (there is one young on L1, while yong does not appear).
Greg's suggestion that The Maid's Tragedy Q1 may have been printed in two shops has been noted above. Compositor S was clearly Okes's man
Before leaving this examination of the printing of Q1, there is one further matter of importance which requires consideration. The method used for printing a book was, as it has been pointed out, closely related to the method used for obtaining proof. Since The Maid's Tragedy Q1 was composed and printed in an unusual way, it seems possible that the proofing might also have had some unusual features.
The essential difference between one- and two-skeleton printing, as far as proofing was concerned, lay in the increased efficiency of operation which resulted from the proofing of forme II of sheet X while corrections were being made to the type of forme I.[25] But if a book was set by formes, and, as in the case of The Maid's Tragedy Q1, forme I was imposed and sent to the press before the composition of forme II began, the machining of forme I would have been completed at about the same time as the locking-up of forme II, provided no great disparity between the speed of composition and the speed of presswork existed. Under these circumstances forme II could not have been ready to go on the press when forme I was removed for correction. The only advantage gained from using two skeletons was that forme II could be imposed when forme I was still on the press; the taking of proof and the correcting of the type must have been done exactly as if only one skeleton were being employed.
There is every reason to believe that press delays were abhorrent to the 17th-century printer. One-skeleton proofing procedure necessarily caused the press to wait while corrections to the type were being made. Therefore, although there is no evidence bearing directly on the point, it seems likely
Collation of the six extant copies of The Maid's Tragedy Q1 reveals the following press variants: Extant copies: Bodl. (Bodleian Library), CSmH (Henry E. Huntington Library), DFo (Folger Shakespeare Library), Dyce (Dyce Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum), MB (Boston Public Library), and MH (Harvard University).
- Uncorrected: Bodl. CSmH
- First stage corrected: DFo
- B3 wedding ] weding Strato ] Steat
- Second stage corrected: Dyce, MB, MH
- B4v liue ˄ away ] liue, away comming in ] come in
Sheet B (outer forme)
- Uncorrected: DFo
- Corrected: Bodl., CSmH, Dyce, MB, MH
- C2v solemne ] s lemne Darke night˄] Darke night, Second ] second
- C3 aboue ] aboae contemnes ] contems
- C4v teach you ] teachyou
Sheet C (outer forme)
- Uncorrected: DFo, MB, MH
- Corrected: Bodl., CSmH, Dyce
- E1 Nor I ] Nere I
Sheet E (outer forme)
- Uncorrected: CSmH
- Corrected: Bodl., DFo, Dyce, MB, MH
- L1v lookes ] bookes
- L2 a way ] away
Sheet L (inner forme)
It seems evident that, in spite of the delay, Okes was not unwilling to stop his press to make minute corrections: indeed, one or two of them may even have been overzealous. On the other hand, nearly every forme in the book, including the formes with variants, contains other and more obvious errors, such as the following (the lemmata are those of a hypothetical corrected state):[27]
B(o) | B1 | 1 | sir, ] sir. |
20 | forbad ] fotbad | ||
B(i) | B3v | 27 | there, codes, codes.] there, [space] codes, codes |
B4 | 6 | this ] rhis | |
C(o) | C1 | 1 | King, Evadne ] King ˄ Evadne |
15 | day. ] day, | ||
C4v | 4 | credulous ] credulons | |
C(i) | C2 | 6 | vernall ] veranll |
25 | floud ] flould | ||
C4 | 18 | a side ] aside | |
D(o) | D1 | 35 | luster ] lnster |
D3 | 9 | Instruct ] Instant | |
13 | thunder ] thundet | ||
D(i) | D1v | 22 | againe, ] againe. |
E(o) | E1 | 2 | Olimpias ] Olimpas |
18 | more ˄ pittying ] more, pittying | ||
E3 | 26 | pritiest ] prtitiest | |
E4v | 10 | royaltie ] rioyaltie | |
E(i) | E2 | 7 | a bout ] about |
E4 | 10 | honest ] honost | |
F(o) | F2v | 21 | to kill me ] can kill me |
33 | a little ] alittle | ||
F(i) | F2 | 16 | another ] an other |
G(o) | G4v | 7 | Safer ] Safer |
H(i) | H2 | 35 | a faith ] A faith |
H3v | 28 | Ile be sworne ] I besworne | |
I(o) | I3 | 26 | oth' King ] oth' the King |
L(o) | L2v | 13 | farwell, and ] farwell, And |
If Okes was willing to make stop-press corrections of the kind revealed by the press variants, it seems odd that errors of the same order, as shown in the above list,[28] were allowed to stand. Had the proofreading been carefully done according to the standards suggested by the press variants, it seems unlikely that many of these mistakes would have gone uncorrected.
One may conclude, then, that the reading of the first impression to be pulled from the uncorrected formes, the "proof," was done hastily and
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