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The Printer and the Date of
Romeo and
Juliet Q4
by
George Walton
Williams
The printer and the date of the fourth quarto of Romeo and Juliet (n.d.), STC 22325, "Printed for Iohn Smethwicke," have so far eluded investigators, but identification of the tailpiece on L4 and analysis of its progressive deterioration have supplied both. The printer was William Stansby, a favorite printer of Smethwick's; he used the tailpiece in many of his quartos and folios in the first decades of the seventeenth century. The breaks which progressively occur in the ornament make it reasonably definite that the quarto was printed in 1622.
| Unbroken | Date of | Broken | Date of | ||
| No. | Description of Break.[1] | in STC: | Imprint | in STC: | Imprint |
| 1. | Right "thigh" on the herma. | 4496 | 1615 | 3143 | 1617 |
| 2. | Right "kidney" on the herma. | 3143 | 1617 | 22772 | 1618 |
| 3. | Topmost frond at extreme left.} | ||||
| } | 3144 | 1619 | 22214 | 1620 | |
| 4. | Over eye of right bird.} | ||||
| 5. | Smudge above break No. 1. | 22634 | 1621 | 13717 | 1622 |
| 6. | Circlet above left bird. | 13717 | 1622 | 22325 | ND |
| 7. | Left ribbon on left pendant. | 22325 | ND | 7151 | 1622 |
The first four breaks and the smudge provide cumulative evidence of deterioration; the last two breaks bracket Romeo and Juliet (STC 22325). The six copies of Q4 Romeo and Juliet [2] I have examined exhibit the first four breaks and the smudge. The sixth break does not occur in STC 22634
Mr. Bent Juel-Jensen, noting the omission of the date in Stansby's edition of Drayton's Poems (STC 7219), suggests that the omission was deliberate and not accidental. He observes that this octavo edition of the Poems was undated probably because "the folio edition [of 1619] was already being planned, and the octavo might sell less well once that was published, and the absence of a date would be an advantage."[4] The imminence of the Shakespeare First Folio[5] would explain the desire to present a quarto of Romeo and Juliet which would not soon become dated.
Notes
The tailpiece appears on these signatures: 3143 (B4,S2v), 3144 (A4,K2,Cc3), 3150 (Ee7v), 4496 (A5v), 7151 (A4), 13717 (Xx1v, Fff4v, Ggg5v, Hhh6, Iii3,8), 22214 (d6,E2v), 22325 (L4), 22634 (¶¶4,6v, C3v, 5,E6,G4v,L3v,T3v), 22772 (B2v). I have consulted the appropriate volumes at these libraries: DFo 3143, 3144, 3150, 4496, 7151, 22325, 22634, 22772; NcD 3144, 22214; NcU 13717; ViU 22634. I am grateful for the assistance of S. K. Heninger, Jr., John L. Lievsay, Robert F. Welsh for examining volumes in libraries I was not able to reach. I acknowledge with thanks the courtesy of the Trustees and Staffs of the various libraries who allowed me to consult their volumes and have them photographed.
It is of some interest to record that this ribbon appears broken (as one would expect) on ¶4 of the preliminaries of volume IV of Purchas his Pilgrims (STC 20509), printed by Stansby in 1625. It appears unbroken on Ii6 of volume I of the same work. It follows that the preliminaries of this massive compilation were printed in 1625 (as they acknowledge), but that the first volume was sent to press shortly after the entry in the Stationers' Register on Dec. 11, 1621, and was being printed in 1622 concurrently with Romeo and Juliet.
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