From the time it was recognized as a distinct variant, now
almost a century ago, the "Coppies" issue of Shakespeare's Second
Folio has been gradually received and accepted as the predecessor
of a certain sequence of titles in several states and settings, and
thus the first to represent, on the leaf conjugate to the title,
the earliest issue of Milton's first-printed English poem. Such, in
brief, is the account of an issue considered only as a freak in the
days of Lowndes and Bohn, then regarded as "one of the earliest
impressions" by Lenox, Winsor, Cole, and Pollard, and finally
accorded preeminence over all in the exhaustive study published by
Robert Metcalf Smith.[1]
When confronted by this imposing array of "firsts," in point of
issue for book and poem, in two great names now conjoined in a
single text, and in the roster of scholars who have labored to
establish and justify the present hypothesis, it ill becomes an
upstart to trample upon the work of generations and subvert the
tradition that work has produced. And yet, if the facts of printing
invalidate critical theories, it is the bibliographer's unbecoming
duty to present them. Certainly the facts allow us to accept the
premise common to all discussions of the problem: We are indeed
concerned with several issues of the Second Folio, each conveying
a different setting of Milton's Epitaph on Shakespeare. Beyond
this, however, I must demur and eventually dismiss all contentions
as irrelevant.[2]
