University of Virginia Library

W. W. Greg, "On Certain False Dates in Shakespearian Quartos," Library, 2d ser., IX (1908), 113-131, 381-409; also "The Shakespeare Quartos," Athenœum, No. 4237 (1909), 100-101.

Both Lee and Huth demurred over the use made of the watermarks. Sidney Lee, "The Shakespeare Quartos," Athenœum, No. 4202 (1908), 574; No. 4236 (1909), 14; No. 4238 (1909), 73. Alfred H. Huth, "Shakespeare's Quartos," Academy, LXXIV (1908), 864-865; "The Shakespeare Quartos," Athenœum, No. 4239 (1909), 101; "On Certain Supposed False Dates in Shakespearian Quartos," Library, 3d ser., I (1910), 36-45, with reply by Alfred W. Pollard, 46-51.

Lest there be a later question of Russian or American priority, I state clearly that the day was 10 July 1950 and the hour 10 A.M. I had played in the National Lawn Bowling Tournament at Los Angeles the previous week.

See my article "Watermarks Are Twins" earlier in this volume.

The shield watermark, ibid., fig. 4b, quarterly FM & Three Lions with 1610 in the base point, sufficiently illustrates the possibility that initials or date may appear reversed. A few examples of lettering reading two ways occur in Heawood's collection: see Edward Heawood, Watermarks (Hilversum, 1950), nos. 1784, 1787, 3593(?), 3844, &c.

Charles M. Briquet, Les Filigranes (Paris, 1907), nos. 12883-86, with dates 1580, 1596, 1598, 1609.

W. A. Churchill, Watermarks in Paper in Holland, England, France . . . (Amsterdam, 1935), no. 458.

Though Churchill died a few years ago, his collection remains, and it may be possible to photograph the mark for closer comparison.

The CSmH copy has this shield watermark with date 16:0 in the map of Asia at I, 109 (date clear); also at I, 152 and II, 387. The ICU copy has it in the engraved title, and in maps at I, 56 and II, 350, 388. The sewing marks may not always show. This shield is fresh, its companion twisted and dilapidated.

If a photographic enlargement can be made of the PD bowl, it should settle the question of 1617 or 1619.

Several of these contain other rare pots not noted by Greg; as a Pot CM/I or L in the Lenox-New York Oldcastle and the Newberry Henry V, and a Pot CM/crescent in the Morgan Oldcastle. It is worth note that the PD pot in the Huntington Henry V is preceded by three unwatermarked sheets and followed by one. Unquestionably somebody was scraping bottom.

Greg, "On Certain False Dates," pp. 395-396.

"Watermarks Are Twins," pp. 59-60.

It may be assumed that at this time papermakers included cording quires and printers treated them much as Moxon describes later in the century. See Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, ed. T. L. De Vinne (1896), II, 353-356. Bibliographers have not usually allowed for cording quires in their reckoning of reams. For the term see E. J. Labarre, Dictionary and Encyclopœdia of Paper and Paper-making, 2d ed. (Amsterdam, 1951).

Briquet, I, xix-xxiii; summarized by Greg, "On Certain False Dates," pp. 121-122.

On 3 May 1619 the Lord Chamberlain wrote the Stationers' Company asking that no King's plays be printed "without some of their consents." [E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare (1930), I, 136.] And on 8 July Lawrence Hayes entered on the Stationers' Register as his copy The Merchant of Venice, formerly the property of his father but among those reprinted by Jaggard. As W. W. Greg says, "It seems likely that this entry was occasioned by Jaggard's piracy, of which it therefore suggests the approximate date." [A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, I (1939), 279.] Paper dated 1619 would have had to be made rather early in the year (in France) to be available by May or even July; and time has to be allowed for wear on the mould and the loss of the figure 1.

B 12789-92 have the initials PD; B 12793 has PD/B and B 12794 P/DB. H 3576 likewise is a pot PD/B, topped by a fleuron; the letters suggest the Debon family of Normandy. H 3580 is a Pot PD/C topped by crescent and fleuron. Both Heawood marks are from undated Townshend papers of c. 1608-19.

W. J. Neidig, "The Shakespeare Quartos of 1619," MP, VIII (1910), 145-163; "False Dates on Shakespeare Quartos," Century Magazine, LXXX (1910), 912-919.

Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, Shakespeare's Imagery (1936), pp. 110-111. To Miss Spurgeon's citations should be added several puns on mistress (the jack, or object-ball).