University of Virginia Library

At a later date I propose to publish the results of a study of the five manuscripts of The State of Innocence, their order and relation to the Q1 text.

Q9 is a pirated edition with falsified date

In his edition of Dryden's plays Montague Summers' collation (III, 490-504) indicates that this half-line appears in two of the three manuscripts which he consulted but is missing from Q1. In fact, the half-line is found in all five of the extant manuscripts, and it is present in the six copies of Q1 which I have collated. Doubtless Summers misread his notes.

These are surveyed by Fredson Bowers in "The Pirated Quarto of Dryden's State of Innocence," which follows in this volume.

The one exception occurs in the Preface, sig. A3r, where the joint Q4, Q9 reading 'morality' for Q1-3, 5-8 'mortality' is unique. However, this is such a simple misprint that not much weight can be placed on its possible significance.

If so, the fact that Q1 was not pirated is simple and can be explained on grounds of expense, since the eight and one-half sheets of paper required for each copy contrasts unfavorably with the six and one-half sheets comprising the condensed Q4, Q8, and Q9 editions.