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THE EDITOR WHO APPROACHES ROMEO AND Juliet must carefully consider the first quarto, Q1, published in 1597, and the second quarto, Q2, published in 1599. Q1 is in its entirety a substantive edition. It was at no point printed from any document now extant. Granted the fact that, as we shall see, Q2 depends directly on Q1 at certain points, it is nevertheless abundantly clear to the most superficial observation that, as a whole, Q2 is not a reproduction of Q1. Q2 depends also on some other, non-extant, source—presumably a manuscript. In the main Q2 is also a substantive edition. Only Q1 and Q2 have the status of substantive editions.
Q1 is a 'bad' quarto, and Q2 is a 'good' quarto. It is generally agreed, I believe, that Q2 gives a text taken in the main from an authentic documentary source. As regards the Q1 text, I subscribe to what I take to be a common view—namely, that it is a memorial reconstruction—the work of a reporter or reporters.
The first question which I should like to discuss is—what exactly was the nature of the copy for Q2?
It is well known that there are some conspicuous bibliographical links between the two quartos. They indicate that, at any rate at certain points, Q2 was printed from a copy of Q1.
Indubitable and impressive links are to be found in an extended series in the passage stretching from I ii 57 to I iii 36.[2] This passage occurs in both editions on sheet B.
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Links in this passage have been pointed out and discussed by various critics—Robert Gericke, Miss Greta Hjort, Sir Walter Greg, and Mr. Sidney Thomas.[3] Mr. Thomas has shown,[4] in my view convincingly, that here we are dealing, not with independent derivation of the two printed texts from the same document, but with a direct dependence of Q2 on the printed pages of Q1.
Noting a number of links in this passage, Miss Hjort apparently sprang to the conclusion that Q2 in its entirety was printed from a copy of Q1 which had been corrected by an editor by comparison with another document. I am not the first to point out that this could not be so, since there are some pages in Q1 which simply could not have been altered in pen and ink in order to yield the Q2 text: more alterations and additions would have been required than there would have been room for on the Q1 pages. Miss Hjort's theory will not do as regards the nature of the copy for Q2 as a whole. Sir Walter Greg subsequently suggested that the copy for Q2 consisted of (i) a first quarto, corrected by an editor, in handwriting, as far as the end of sheet B, and (ii) from that point on, a transcript of a playhouse manuscript. Here are Sir Walter's own words: "It seems clear that some editor was commissioned to prepare the copy for an authorized quarto, and for this purpose was provided with the 1597 edition and a playhouse manuscript. He began by taking the printed text and elaborately correcting and expanding it by comparison with the manuscript, but when he got to the end of sheet B he decided that it would be less trouble to make a transcript of the latter. This he proceeded to do through the remainder of the play, though I will not say that he may not have used other fragments of the printed text, and I am certain that he consulted it on occasions when the manuscript was obscure."[5]
Now in the article which I have cited Mr. Thomas makes a point which seems to me sound, and which necessitates a modification of Sir Walter Greg's theory. Let us consider the relationship between the two quartos up to the end of Q1 sheet B, leaving
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Now Mr. Thomas argues[7] that, before and after this passage, Q1, up to the end of sheet B, could hardly have been corrected to yield the Q2 text, for more alterations and additions would have been required than there is room for in Q1. I agree. And so I believe that Sir Walter Greg's theory of the relationship of the two quartos up to the end of Q1 sheet B must be modified. Q1 sheet B ends at I iii 100. My view of the copy for Q2 up to this point (excluding the Prologue) is as follows: from I i 1 to I ii 56 Q2 depends on manuscript copy; from I ii 57 to I iii 36 Q2 depends on Q1 unrevised; from that point to I iii 100 Q2 again depends on manuscript copy. This I take to be Mr. Thomas's view, and I think he is right.
It is interesting to speculate on the question of why, at I ii 57, Q2 should suddenly begin to depend on Q1 instead of on the copy on which it has hitherto been depending, and why, at I iii 36, it should suddenly revert to copy other than Q1. An obvious suggestion is that between these two points a manuscript ultimately or directly underlying Q2 was mutilated or illegible, so that recourse had to be had, by editor or compositor, to the previously printed edition. Mr. Thomas, the most recent scholar to discuss this matter, has advanced this explanation. "The manuscript from which Q2 was printed," he declares, "either lacked the leaves which contained the lines [in question] or was completely illegible at that point."[8] Mr. Thomas is here reiterating the explanation given by the earliest critic who noticed the connection between the two quartos here—Robert Gericke. But I am not quite happy about this explanation, for the following reason. Round about the point where Q2 here ceases to depend on Q1, in the midst of a long speech by the Nurse, the Q1 text changes its character. Up to I iii 36 the Nurse's lines in Q1 have, I think, been metrically quite satisfactory. At I iii 36 Q2 suddenly ceases to depend on Q1, and only five lines further on we find that, while Q2 is still metrically
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Q2 leaves Q1 at I iii 36. Almost immediately Q1 shows memorial corruption. In Q1, immediately after Q2 has left it, the Nurse speaks of how Juliet could have "wadled vp and downe". In Q2 she speaks of how Juliet could have "run and wadled all about". I believe that in Q1 we have here an anticipation of II v 51 where the same speaker, the Nurse, refers to herself, in Q2, as catching her death with "iaunsing vp and downe". Q2 has no sooner left Q1 here in I iii than Q1—immediately—shows memorial corruption. Now we must be very careful. Immediately Q2 leaves Q1, Q1 has memorial corruption. But it may be suggested that Q1 has memorial corruption in the passage in which Q2 copies it— memorial corruption not detectable because there is nothing with which to compare the Q1 text (that of Q2 being the same). We must, then, be careful. The argument I should advance is this. In Q1, from the beginning of I iii up to I iii 36 the Nurse's part is satisfactory metrically: at I iii 36 Q2 leaves Q1: within five lines of this we find that Q1 is metrically unsatisfactory, whereas the different text of Q2 continues metrically sound: this suggests that Q2 may leave Q1 because, whereas Q1 had been satisfactory as a whole heretofore for a time, it no longer was. But why should Q2 leave Q1 four lines before the metrical breakdown in Q1? Well, in the very second line after Q2 leaves it, Q1 shows a memorial error. I admit that my suggestion is without absolute proof. But I should say that it seems to me reasonable to suppose that Q2 leaves Q1 at I iii 36 not because the manuscript behind Q2 has suddenly become legible again, where before, for a considerable stretch, it has not been legible, but rather because before I iii 36 Q1 for a time gave a text in the main satisfactory, whereas after that it does not.
I should suggest, then, the following hypothesis, very tentatively. A person who may be called the Q2 editor, or Scribe E, was entrusted officially with the task of preparing copy for Q2. He
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I cannot forbear referring to the well-known fact that a troublesome and interesting feature of this sheet B passage in which Q2 depends on Q1 is that in it the Nurse's lines are printed in italics in both quartos. The Nurse begins speaking at I iii 2, and that it is her first line in the play.
Now since Q2 is dependent on Q1 in this passage, it is easy to say that the Nurse's lines are here printed in italics in Q2 because they are so in Q1. That, I think, is correct. The awkward question that must be faced is—why were they printed in italics in Q1 in the first place? I can only assume (and I do not think I am the first to do so) that in the manuscript behind Q1 the Nurse's lines in this section of text were written in the Italian type of handwriting, the speeches of the other characters being written in the English type of handwriting. The Q1 compositor reproduced this calligraphic distinction typographically. Now why should the Nurse's lines be written in any manuscript in a different type of handwriting from those of the other characters? I cannot see that it can be held in the least probable that anyone writing the play out straight ahead would on his own initiative vary his handwriting in this way. I take it, then, that at this point there lies behind Q1 a
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In connection with the italics in the Nurse's part a further point must be noted. Q2 leaves Q1 at I iii 36. Scribe E doubtless reverted to the production of manuscript copy. After I iii 36, sig. B4v of Q1 could hardly have been corrected by hand so as to produce the Q2 text—there is not enough room. But Q2 continues to set up the Nurse's lines in italics for a while (up to the end of sheet B). That, I imagine,—and the suggestion does not originate with me,—is to be attributed to the Q2 compositor deciding to go on, on his own responsibility, making a typographical distinction no longer rooted in his copy.
Italics for the Nurse cease in Q1 at the end of sheet C. Again, of course, it is not necessary to assume that, for the Nurse's speeches, Q1 depends on copy in Italian handwriting right up to the end of sheet C. The fragmentary manuscript part which we have postulated may have broken off before that, and the Q1
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I have spoken of a fragment of a manuscript part: but I would point out that I have not claimed that it was authentic at any point. Scribe E accepted the Nurse's first 28 lines or so from Q1, and, as we have seen, they are metrically satisfactory; but that may be attributable simply to good reporting.
A final word remains to be said about another detail of the Q1 italics problem in I iii. In Q1 the scene ends with a three-line speech by the Clown, and it is printed in italics. It is not so printed in Q2. The question is—does Q1, as regards this three-line speech by the Clown, rely on copy in Italian handwriting? I do not think it necessary to assume that it does. The Clown's italics may be laid solely to the charge of the Q1 compositor. For quite a time he has been setting alternate passages in italic and roman. The Nurse's final speech in the scene is in Q1 followed by a single-line speech by Lady Capulet, in roman, and then by a three-line speech by Juliet, also in roman. Then comes the Clown's three-line speech, in italics. It is quite conceivable that the Q1 compositor simply decided, on his own initiative, that it was time for italics again.
Q1 sheet B finishes at I iii 100. Sir Walter Greg's theory was that up to this point Q2 was printed from a copy of Q1 corrected by hand. That theory we must, I think, reject; and we must substitute the following. From I i 1 up to I ii 56 Q2 was printed from manuscript copy: from I ii 57 to I iii 36 Q2 was printed from Q1 uncorrected by Scribe E: and from that point to I iii 100 Q2 was printed again from manuscript copy.
It will be recalled that Sir Walter Greg's theory had it that after the point in the text which coincides with the end of Q1 sheet B the copy for Q2 consisted of a transcription of a playhouse manuscript—"though," Sir Walter declares, "I will not say that [the scribe] may not have used other fragments of the printed text, and I am certain that he consulted it on occasions when the manuscript was obscure."[10] We are now concerned with the question—what was the nature of the copy for Q2 after that point in the text which coincides with the end of Q1 sheet B?
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In 1919 Messrs. Pollard and Dover Wilson produced a set of articles on the Shakespearian bad quartos.[11] In these articles they discussed the origin of the bad quarto texts, and they advanced a highly ingenious theory. It was a very gallant attempt at explaining a very puzzling group of texts, and it was based on some acute observation. But it was wrong, as Mr. Dover Wilson is now the first to admit. Yet, as regards Romeo and Juliet, in enunciating and endeavouring to uphold their theory, Messrs. Pollard and Dover Wilson noted something which is undeniably true—that there are bibliographical links between the two quartos in two passages subsequent to the end of Q1 sheet B. These links are to be found at II iv 36-43 and III v 26-35. The passages occur in Q1 on leaves E1 and G3 respectively. In these two passages, admittedly short, there is between the two quartos a remarkable degree of agreement in the use of initial capitals and in the placing of colons; yet there are verbal differences in each case. Mr. Thomas suggests[12] that in these two passages we have examples of the Q2 editor consulting Q1 because the manuscript he was copying was illegible. I cannot myself think that this is a very likely explanation here. Consider the first of the two passages, II iv 36-43. The two texts run as follows:
Heere comes Romeo.
Mer:
Without his Roe, like a dryed Hering. O flesh flesh how art thou fishified. Sirra now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowdin: Laura to his Lady was but a kitchin drudg, yet she had a better loue to berime her: Dido a dowdy Cleopatra a Gypsie, Hero and Hellen hildings and harletries: Thisbie a gray eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo bon iour, there is a French curtesie to your French flop: yee gaue vs the counterfeit fairely yesternight.
Here Comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.
Mer.
Without his Roe, like a dried Hering, O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified? now is he for the numbers that Petrach flowed in: Laura to his Lady, was a kitchin wench, marrie she had a better loue to berime her: Dido a dowdie, Cleopatra a Gipsie, Hellen and Hero, hildings and harlots: Thisbie a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, Bonieur, theres a French salutation to your French slop: you gaue vs the counterfeit fairly last night.
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Mr. Thomas's theory assumes that when he came to the words "Without his Roe, like a dryed Hering" Scribe E found his manuscript difficult to read. So he looked at Q1. He copied these words from Q1, reproducing Q1's capitalisation. He then proceeded with the speech, copying Q1, copying its capitals and its colons. But he must have had his eye on his manuscript too, for he made changes in the text of the Q1 passage. Of course, it might be suggested that not all the alterations are his work. Perhaps in a given case the Q2 compositor made an alteration owing to carelessness. But we could not possibly hold that the Q2 compositor was responsible for all the changes in this short passage: there are too many changes in too short a passage to make that in the least likely. For at least some of the changes Scribe E must be responsible. But again, it might, I suppose, be suggested that Scribe E, copying Q1 here because his manuscript was illegible, altered Q1 memorially. That is certainly possible. But there is no positive evidence to indicate this hypothesis here, and it would, I think, be unsafe to have recourse to it. I think we must assume that some, if not indeed all, of the Q2 alterations in this passage came from the authentic manuscript used in the preparation of the copy for Q2. Now what of the suggestion that in this passage Scribe E consulted Q1 because the manuscript he was copying was illegible? If we accept that suggestion we must, I think, be prepared to take the following, for example, as sufficiently likely to be acceptable. Consider the portion of text beginning with the words "Laura to his Lady". Owing to illegibility in the manuscript before him, Scribe E applied himself to the task of copying out of Q1 the words "Laura to his Lady was but a kitchin drudg, yet she had a better loue to berime her:". He followed Q1 sufficiently closely to reproduce the capitalisation and the colon; but at the ninth and tenth words the manuscript before him suddenly became sufficiently legible to show him that instead of Q1's "drudg" he must write "wench", and instead of Q1's "yet" he must write "marrie". Having taken these words from the manuscript which was allegedly difficult to read, he returned to Q1, continuing to accept its capitals and its colons, but introducing other verbal alterations from the manuscript. I cannot say that this appears to me a very likely theory. I should rather say that the most reasonable explanation of the relationship between the two
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Of course, if any critic feels that the agreements in capitalisation and punctuation between the two quartos in the passage we are dealing with can be explained as simply a matter of coincidence, then he will not be much impressed by the above suggestion. I myself cannot regard them as a matter of pure coincidence. To postulate pure coincidence would be to strain credibility too far. For one thing, in the passage we have been examining there is a remarkable agreement between Q1 and Q2 in the matter of the setting up of proper names in italic or roman type. It is not only that the same words have initial capitals in both texts, and that the colons appear in exactly the same places: we also have to reckon with the fact that in both texts all the proper names in the passage are italicised except three—the same three in both texts—namely, Petrarch, Dido, and Cleopatra. In Q1 the first letter of "Dido" is in italic, the other three in roman: in Q2 all four letters of the name are in roman: but it is an essential agreement. I am sure that the name "Dido" appears in roman in Q2 because it does (essentially) in Q1, and that the names "Petra (r) ch" and "Cleopatra" appear in roman in Q2 because they do in Q1. Q2 surely depends directly on Q1 in this passage; but the Q1 passage has been altered editorially.
I have not the space to examine the other passage I referred to—III v 26-35. I can only say that a comparison of the two versions of it seems to me to indicate the same conclusion.
Now, having decided that in these two short passages Q2 is dependent on an edited copy of Q1, we naturally look carefully at the two leaves of Q1 involved—E1 and G3. We look at each in its entirety. And I should claim that it is possible, in pen and ink, to correct these two Q1 leaves in their entirety so as to give the Q2 text. I think it reasonable, then, to suggest, and I do suggest, that part of the copy for Q2 consisted of leaves E1 and G3 of Q1, corrected by hand in accordance with an authoritative manuscript, and then torn out of the particular first quarto used, and placed in the bundle of papers that formed the copy for Q2.
It may be suggested that certain other leaves of Q1 were also
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Nor arme, nor face, nor any other part.
Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose, etc.
Nor arme nor face, ô be some other name
Belonging to a man.
Whats in a name that which we call a rose, etc.
Nor arme, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O be some other name.
Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose, etc.
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I have suggested that part of the copy for Q2 consisted of leaves D1, E1, and G3 of Q1, corrected by Scribe E in the light of an authentic manuscript which was part of his equipment. Here I would mention the Prologue to the play. The text differs substantially in the two quartos, but there are similarities in the setting up. Both versions are set up in italics with a large initial letter in line 1; and both have brackets round line 2. I take it that this is a case of a page printed in Q2 from an edited copy of Q1. The Q1 text would have had to be altered extensively: but there is plenty of room on the page in Q1, even if the Prologue were to be almost completely rewritten; and I imagine that that was done.
In dealing with the text up to I iii 100 (the end of Q1 sheet B) we contended that part of that stretch was in Q2 printed not from Q1, edited or unedited, but from manuscript copy. It is abundantly clear that at certain other points, later on, Q2 was again set up from manuscript copy. There are points where we can say with confidence that there would not be nearly enough room on the Q1 pages for the insertion of the necessary alterations and additions.
It should be noted, however, that it is possible that at a given point, writing out manuscript copy, Scribe E may have consulted Q1 and imported into his transcription a Q1 reading. A case in point occurs, I believe, at II i 13. The two texts of II i 10-14 run as follows:
Q1 cry but ay me. Pronounce but Loue and Doue, speake to my gossip Venus one faire word, one nickname for her purblinde sonne and heire young Abraham: Cupid hee that shot so trim when young King Cophetua loued the begger wench.
Q2 Crie but ay me, prouaunt, but loue and day,Speake to my goship Venus one faire word,
One nickname for her purblind sonne and her,
Young Abraham: Cupid he that shot so true,
When King Cophetua lou'd the begger mayd.
(In Q1 the passage occurs on sig. C4v.)
Here, I think, Q2 was printed from manuscript copy. The
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At certain points, then, I think Scribe E furnished the Q2 compositor with copy in the form of leaves of Q1 corrected by comparison with an authentic manuscript. At certain other points he furnished him with copy which consisted of his own transcription of the same authentic manuscript.[13] What was the nature of this authentic manuscript which underlies Q2?
In all probability it was a manuscript, in Shakespeare's handwriting, which had not itself been used as a prompt-book. In Q2 we find that in stage-directions and speech-headings Lady Capulet is referred to by half a dozen different titles (in full or abbreviated) — Wife, Capulet's Wife, Lady, Old Lady, Lady of the House, Mother. The late R. B. McKerrow pointed out that this sort of thing would tend to confuse a prompter, and would not be likely to appear in an official prompt-book.[14] In a prompt-book a given character would tend to be indicated consistently by one designation. A diversity of titles would, however, be quite natural in a playwright's own manuscript. At one point Shakespeare, thinking of the character in her relationship with the heroine, would call her "Mother"; at another point, thinking of her in her relationship with Capulet, he would call her "Wife"; and so on. Uniformity of designation would probably be substituted for this diversity in a transcription of the author's manuscript (with adaptation) which would constitute the prompt-book. Other suggestions that the manuscript behind Q2 was an author's manuscript which had not itself been used as a prompt-book are to be found in the fact that some necessary indications of entrances and exits are wanting in Q2, and in the fact that on occasion Q2 is capable of printing two different versions of the same passage.
To sum up as regards the nature of the copy for Q2: the person who produced it, Scribe E, furnished the compositor with a
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I should greatly like to discuss Q1 at length, but I must be brief. I have no doubt that Mr. Hoppe is in most respects correct in his recent book about this text.[15] His book is a most valuable contribution. The Q1 text is full of the kinds of error that we associate with reported texts—anticipations and recollections, inversions, vulgarisations, weak synonym-substitutions, paraphrase, metrical breakdown, and so on. Mr. Hoppe has marshalled much of this evidence very impressively. This or that individual example of corruption, we may say, might in itself be scribal or compositorial. But there are far too many egregious memorial corruptions to make it possible to avoid the formula of memorial reconstruction. The play has no sooner begun than we have in Q1 a remarkable example of the absurdity in which memorial corruption can on occasion result. In the first line of the Prologue, Q2 speaks, sensibly, of "Two housholds". Q1 has, instead, "Two houshold Frends", which in the context clearly makes nonsense. There is little doubt in my mind that behind the absurd reading of Q1 there lies a reporter's memory of a much later passage—III i 161. From the authentic version of the Prologue the reporter remembered "Two housholds", and the fact that enmity between them was involved. His mind sprang forward to III i, where, describing an affray between the two enemy households, Benvolio speaks in Q2 of how Romeo called aloud "Hold friends, friends part". The syllable "hold" constituted a memorial link which had the effect of bringing the word "friends" from Act III into the Q1 version of the first line of the Prologue,
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Since in Q1 we are dealing with a memorially transmitted text, we must be very careful before we say that a given passage in Q1 represents a Shakespearian first draft, and the corresponding Q2 passage a Shakespearian revision. We cannot say this unless at a given point we are confident that the Q1 version can hardly be a corrupt version, indebted for its phrasing to the reporter or reporters. Now I confess that there are just one or two cases (no more than that) where Q1 contains a word (different from the Q2 reading) which seems to me rather unlikely as a reportorial substitution. For instance, at I iv 56 (in the "Queen Mab" speech) Q1 has "Burgomaster", Q2 "Alderman". I am not sure that the word "Burgomaster" would be likely to be substituted by a reporter on his own initiative. It could have been, I dare say. But some people might suggest rather that Shakespeare originally wrote "Burgomaster" and then, in a revision, changed it to "Alderman", that being a word more familiar to English audiences. Yet, if Shakespeare did originally write "Burgomaster", it may well be that "Alderman" is a change made, not by him, but by Scribe E (or someone else), intent on making the text fully clear to English readers. At no point in the play can I say that it seems to me necessary to suppose that there was any Shakespearian revision between the texts represented by Q1 and Q2.
The theory that Q1 represents, accurately or inaccurately, a Shakespearian first draft has been not infrequently advanced by critics in the past. There are passages in which the two quartos diverge completely or almost completely, and such passages might
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Mr. Hoppe in his book suggests the possibility that Henry Chettle may be regarded as a "candidate for the office of reporter-versifier".[18] Independently of Mr. Hoppe, Mr. Thomas has also advanced the view that certain of the passages in Q1 which diverge radically from Q2 are the work of Chettle.[19] I cannot discuss the evidence here. Suffice it to say that I think it very possible that Chettle may have been involved in, for example, the Q1 version of II vi. But, if he was, he must be regarded as just as liable to be called a "reporter" as the person who produced the non-Shakespearian verse in the bad quarto of Hamlet: for, at certain points at any rate, the same procedure is followed. As Mr. Hoppe showed so well in 1938,[20] parts of Q1 II vi are to be explained as mosaics of recollections of different passages scattered throughout the authentic text of the play. Take for example the following lines in the Q1 version of II vi—
My Iuliet welcome. As doo waking eyes
(Cloasd in Nights mysts) attend the frolicke Day,
So Romeo hath expected Iuliet,
And thou art come.
Jul:
I am (if I be Day)
Come to my Sunne: shine foorth, and make me faire.
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Mr. Thomas thinks that Q1 II vi, after the entry of Juliet, is from the aesthetic point of view good, and indeed even better than the Q2 version. Speaking of the final line and a half of our last quotation from Q1—
I am (if I be Day)
Come to my Sunne: shine foorth, and make me faire.—
A moment or two ago, I spoke of the theory that a Shakespearian revision lies between the texts represented by Q1 and Q2, Q1 giving us the text of a Shakespearian first draft. I do not believe this theory. Now in connection with the revision theory, I should mention, briefly, that there is of course a case for regarding not Q1
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Having spoken of the nature of the copy for Q2, and of the nature of the transmission of the Q1 text, let us now consider the final question of what is to be the procedure of a modern editor of this play. I am at present engaged on the production of a modern-spelling edition of the play. That being so, and my space here being limited, I shall concentrate on the problems facing a modern-spelling editor, leaving out of account the special problems confronting an old-spelling editor.
Let us take first the passage in which Q2 is dependent on Q1 as it stands without interference by Scribe E (I ii 57-I iii 36). Q2 here ranks as a reprint of Q1. In fact in this passage Q2 is not substantive at all, but derivative. Not a single alteration in Q2 in this passage need be referred to anyone other than the Q2 compositor. Clearly, then, where Q2 contains a reading different from that of Q1, we must accept the Q1 reading, unless in a given case we feel inclined to accept that of Q2 as a desirable conjectural emendation.
Let us now briefly glance at two modern editions and see what they do as regards the four verbal variants between Q1 and Q2 which we enumerated earlier in this paper. The two modern editions we shall look at are the old Cambridge edition and Mr. Hoppe's recent "Crofts Classics" edition. (They are both modernspelling editions.) Both follow Q2 in adopting the phrases "an hour" (I iii 12) and "with the dug" (I iii 33) instead of "a hour" and "with dug" (Q1). They are right to do so. In these two cases
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In this passage, then, circumstances have resulted in our having only one substantive text, and in our having to include in our editions of Romeo a bad quarto passage of not inconsiderable length—material which at one stage has been transmitted purely memorially. Obvious errors we can emend. Corruption is not, however, always self-evident: and at a given point in this passage it is possible that Shakespeare's intentions are irrevocably lost, and that our texts will remain corrupt to the end of time.
Nowhere else in the play does an editor have to reckon with the same state of affairs as in this passage. Let us leave it now, and concentrate on the rest of the play—the great bulk of the play.
I have suggested that some other leaves of Q1 were torn out and, in an edited state, used in the copy for Q2. As regards these passages we have in Q2 a good text which stands in the same relationship to an antecedent bad text as does the folio version of King Lear. The folio text of Lear was printed from a copy of the quarto which had been corrected by an editor.[25] Now, as Sir Walter Greg has pointed out,[26] there is in such a case a greater presumption of genuineness in a good text reading where it differs from the bad text reading than where it agrees with it. That is true; but I want to emphasise that even where the good text reading differs
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I have said that I think that part of the copy for Q2 Romeo was leaf D1 of Q1, corrected in handwriting. Now at one point in Q1 leaf D1 (on the verso side) we have the following passage:
As is a winged messenger of heauen (head,
Vnto the white vpturned woondering eyes,
Of mortals that fall backe to gaze on him,
When he bestrides the lasie pacing cloudes,
And sailes vpon the bosome of the aire. (II ii 26-32)
The image of lazy pacing clouds is a very good image. Now it may be said that the image of lazy puffing clouds is also a good image. One can, poetically, imagine a cloud, in a lazy mood, puffing from one point to another, pausing there, lazily, and then after a time puffing on to yet another point, and so on. But I believe that the context shows that Shakespeare is thinking of a much smoother motion than that would necessitate. "When he bestrides the lazy—something—clouds And sails upon the bosom of the air." Sailing upon the bosom of the air suggests a very smooth motion. There is something awkwardly incongruous in proceeding from lazy puffing clouds to smooth sailing on the bosom of the air. I repeat: consider the passage carefully, and it must surely seem that Q1's "pacing" (a smooth enough motion) fits in better with the context than does Q2's "puffing". The Q2 "puffing" suggests something rather jerky, which jars in a context otherwise devoted to smoothness.[*]
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Now, assuming that Q2's "puffing" is corrupt, I believe it is possible to show how the corruption arose. I think it is a memorial corruption. At I iv 96 Mercution talks of dreams which are begot of nothing but vain fantasy; and this vain fantasy is
And more inconstant than the wind who wooes,
Euen now the frozen bosome of the North:
And being angerd puffes away from thence,
Turning his side to the dewe dropping South.
Now we are dealing with a passage in a later scene and a passage in an earlier scene. In the passage in the later scene I suspect that the Q2 word "puffing" is wrong. In the earlier scene the word "puffes" occurs (in both texts, note) with admirable appropriateness. I think that the presence of "puffing" in the later scene in Q2 is due to Scribe E having remembered "puffes" from the earlier scene. And I can claim that it is very likely that the two passages, the one in the later scene and the one in the earlier scene, could have been associated in the mind of a scribe or editor who knew the play;[27] for there is a clear phraseological link between the two passages: in the later passage we have the phrase "the bosome of the ayre", and in the earlier passage we have the "ayre", and, two lines later, the "bosome of the North". This suggests that the Q2 "puffing" is not a straightforward misreading of the word "passing" in handwriting, as, in his "Crofts Classics" edition, Mr. Hoppe apparently considers it to be.[28]
The passage involving the "lasie pacing cloudes" occurs in
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As regards passages of the play, then, in which Q2 was printed from edited leaves of Q1, what is a modern-spelling editor to do? Where Q2 agrees with Q1 he must be watchful. In a given case Scribe E may have negligently failed to make a necessary correction. The modern editor must be prepared, where he considers it necessary, readily to emend a reading in which the two quartos agree. He will of course accede to the necessity of doing so where the reading in question in itself gives evidence in its context of being corrupt. Where there is no self-evident corruption, the modern editor will doubtless accept readings in which the two quartos agree. But corruption is not always self-evident, and the modern editor will agree that in a given case in which he accepts a reading exhibited by both Q1 and Q2 he may in fact be accepting a non-Shakespearian reading. It is not possible to produce a text which we can guarantee to be free from corruption.
Now, as regards passages printed in Q2 from edited leaves of Q1, the modern editor must, where Q2 disagrees with Q1, assume that the Q2 reading comes from the authentic manuscript which Scribe E had as part of his equipment, unless in a given case there seems a strong enough reason for supposing that the Q2 reading is an error introduced by Scribe E or by the compositor. If a Q2 reading which differs from Q1 does appear to a modern editor, for good reason, to be corrupt, he must decide whether to accept the Q1 reading or whether to propose a reading differing not only from Q2 but also from Q1. There are various possibilities. Scribe E may have altered a perfectly correct Q1 reading owing to his
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Finally, at certain points Q2 was printed from a transcript of Shakespeare's manuscript, and is independent of Q1 except for possible occasional consultation of Q1 by Scribe E or the Q2 compositor. Apart from such cases of possible consultation, agreement between the two quartos is now a presumptive guarantee of authenticity. In a given case of agreement here, we may say that Scribe E, copying Shakespeare's manuscript, derived a certain reading from it. Quite independently, the Q1 reporter, relying only on his memory, conveyed the same reading. Scribe E and the reporter thus corroborate each other. And yet really the position is not so good as that. For there is always that troublesome factor of possible occasional consultation of Q1 by Scribe E or the Q2 compositor. Any given agreement between Q2 and Q1 might be explained as a case of such consultation. Thus a modern editor should still scrutinise every word of the text, where the two quartos agree, in order to determine whether emendation is desirable.
Next: where Q2 (set up from manuscript copy) differs from Q1, we must assume, unless in a given case there is any reason against doing so, that the Q2 readings are derived from the Shakespearian manuscript, and are thus genuine. This is so. Yet we must still reckon with the possibility that in a given case the Q1
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Just as on one occasion when he was correcting Q1 Scribe E put in a reading ("puffing") which was in fact a memorial corruption, so I believe he did on one occasion when he was transcribing the Shakespearian manuscript. I think it would be difficult to suppose that Q1 leaf D3 was corrected by hand to form copy for Q2. I think that here Q2 depends on manuscript copy. Now at the end of II ii (on that leaf) Romeo says, according to Q1, "Now will I to my Ghostly fathers Cell". In Q2 he says "Hence will I to my ghostly Friers close cell". I am concerned with the latter half of the line. The Q2 version seems to me odd. The words "ghostly Friers" are awkwardly tautologous. Sir Walter Greg agrees that the Q2 line is corrupt. He says that its ending "can only have originated, one supposes, in inability to decipher the playhouse manuscript"[29] i.e., in our belief, the Shakespearian autograph manuscript. Whether it was a matter of Scribe E failing to decipher the authentic manuscript or not (and it may well have been), I believe that the words he penned in his transcript owed their existence in his mind to a memorial anticipation of V iii 254, where the same Friar referred to speaks of having meant to keep Juliet "closely at my Cell" (Q2 only).[30]
If, in a portion of the play printed in Q2 from manuscript copy written out by Scribe E, a modern editor can argue cogently that a given reading in Q1 is good, and that the corresponding reading in Q2 is corrupt, and if he can explain how the allegedly corrupt reading in Q2 might have arisen in the light of his general theory
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It seems to me, then, that in editing Romeo one has to have Q1, an edition of little authority in general, on one's desk all the time, as well as Q2, an edition of very much greater authority in general. I do not think that, editing the play in accordance with the principles I have been discussing, one will find oneself introducing very many readings from Q1—just a handful, I imagine. The Q1 text is in the main a manifestly inferior text. But I submit that as one proceeds with the work one must be prepared to consider the adoption of a Q1 reading in a given case, even though Q1 is a bad quarto. If one adopts a Q1 reading in preference to a Q2 reading, one must be prepared to state strong and cogent reasons for so doing. These reasons may in a given case be literary. I do not think that a textual critic can ignore literary considerations. But I repeat—the reasons must be strong and cogent. Yet, if there are strong and cogent reasons, the modern editor should not ignore them on grounds of timidity.
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