| ||
In what follows I hope to show what the editorial implications are of the Folio 1 Henry IV when its variant readings are considered in relation to its compositors. The authoritative text for the play is the earliest surviving quarto, printed by Short in 1598 and described traditionally as Q1, but known to be a reprint of an earlier edition of which only the four leaves of sheet C survive. Q1 was therefore a derivative print but has substantive status except for the eight surviving pages of its lost predecessor. Fortunately these eight pages give good ground for supposing that Q1 was, in substance, an unusually careful reprint. Each of Q1's successors was printed from its immediate predecessor and the Folio text was printed from Q5 (1613). The example of Q5 used for the Folio had been edited to serve as printer's copy in so far as act and scene divisions had been introduced and some profanity (though by no means all) had been removed. But although the Folio corrects twenty-six of Q5's known errors in the dialogue it is evident from its legacy of about two hundred errors from Q2-5 that no such systematic effort had been made to correct the Q5 readings as was made in preparing quarto copy for the Folio texts of Richard III, Troilus and Cressida, Lear, and Othello.[1]
It is in connection with these four Folio texts that the Folio variants in 1 Henry IV are important. The quartos which served as Folio copy for these four plays had been purged of most of their errors by collation with authoritative playhouse manuscripts and these four Folio texts should preserve more authoritative readings than the quartos. But between the corrected quartos and the Folio an editor has to allow for the Folio compositors' errors. Some of these are self-evident and their removal is a simple
The Folio text of 1 Henry IV runs from p. 46 to p. 73 (d5v—f6r) of the Histories. What should have been numbered p. 47 is numbered p. 49 and the pagination proceeded from this point without rectification. There are twenty-five and a half pages of text, of which, by my interpretation of the evidence of their characteristic spellings, compositor A set eleven pages and compositor B fourteen and a half. Their stints were as follows:
B d5v-e3v | (pp. 46-56) | I. i. | --II. iv. 143 |
A e4r-f1v | (pp. 57-64) | II. iv. 143 | --III. iii. 111 |
B f2r | (p. 65) | III. iii. 112 | --IV. i. 19 |
A f2v-f3v | (pp. 66-8) | IV. i. 20 | --IV. iv. 26 |
B f4r-f6r | (pp. 69-73) | IV. iv. 27 | --end |
There are about one hundred and seventy dialogue readings in which the Folio differs verbally from Q5. Twenty-six of these variants are almost certainly correct since they restore Q1 readings corrupted in Q2-5. Nine of these readings occur in the pages set by A; seventeen in the pages set by B. They are as follows. I give the Folio reading in the first column, italicising the word or words restored and ignoring Folio italics.
Compositor A | ||||
II. | iv. | 242 | tyr'd thy selfe | tried Q5 |
II. | iv. | 252 | ranne and roar'd | roare Q2-5 |
III. | i. | 263 | you are as slow | om. as Q5 |
III. | ii. | 8 | thy passages of Life | the Q2-5 |
III. | ii. | 148 | To engrosse vp | my Q3-5 |
IV. | i. | 82 | We shall o're-turne it | or turne Q4-5 |
IV. | ii. | 11 | If I be not asham'd | om. not Q3-5 |
IV. | iii. | 70 | Attended him on Bridges | Attend Q4-5 |
IV. | iv. | 16 | And what with | om. with Q3-5 |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | ii. | 10 | so superfluous, to demaund | om. so Q2-5 |
I. | iii. | 64 | himselfe haue beene | haue beene himselfe Q4-5 |
I. | iii. | 190 | Ile reade you Matter | your Q5 |
II. | ii. | 45 | when a iest is so forward | om. a Q2-5 |
II. | ii. | 73 | happy man be his dole, say I | om. I Q5 |
II. | ii. | 104 | Falstaffe sweates to death | swears Q3-5 |
II. | iii. | 26 | An Infidell | and infidell Q2-5 |
II. | iii. | 44 | I by thee haue watcht | om. haue Q4-5 |
II. | iv. | 10 | no proud Iack | not Q4-5 |
II. | iv. | 47 | all the Books in England | om. the Q4-5 |
III. | iii. | 197 | to ride yet | yet to ride Q5 |
V. | i. | 5 | And by his hollow whistling | the Q3, om. Q4-5 |
V. | i. | 40 | boldly did out-dare | outdate Q2-5 |
V. | i. | 90 | More actiue, valiant | more valiant Q3-5 |
V. | i. | 100 | in a Single Fight | om. a Q2-5 |
V. | iv. | 72 | all the budding Honors | thy Q5 |
V. | iv. | 107 | so fat a Deere | faire Q2-5 |
In addition to the above, there are eight Folio variants which are generally accepted as necessary corrections of readings common to Q1-5. These are as follows.
Compositor A | ||||
III. | i. | 100 | Cantle | scantle |
IV. | i. | 55 | is | tis |
IV. | iii. | 28 | ours | our |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | i. | 39 | Herefordshire | Herdforshire Q1-3; Herdfordshire Q4-5 |
II. | iii. | 3 | in respect | in the respect |
II. | iv. | 31 | President | present |
V. | iv. | 34 | so defend | and defend |
V. | iv. | 68 | Nor | Now |
With a few possible exceptions, the remaining Folio variants must be regarded as errors in view of the Folio text's derivative status; and there can be no doubt that, on an impartial view, this is indeed what they are. These variants differ strikingly in their distribution from the readings included in lists (a) and (b), since there are only eighteen in A's eleven pages but one hundred and thirteen in B's fourteen and a half.
In the first place, there are only two literal errors in the pages set by A (one only if the substitution of 'pounds' for 'pound' is regarded as a normalisation), but there are twenty-four in the pages set by B. I again give the Folio readings in the first column.
Compositor A | ||||
III. | i. | 9 | Cheekes looke | cheeke lookes |
III. | iii. | 73 | foure and twentie pounds | xxiiii.pound |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | i. | 64 | Strain'd | Staind |
I. | i. | 66 | welcomes newes | welcom newes |
I. | ii. | 77 | smiles | smiles Q1-4; similes Q5 |
I. | ii. | 103 | Watch | match |
I. | iii. | 46 | tearme | termes |
I. | iii. | 108 | base (C., A.) | bare |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | iii. | 159 | staru'd | starue |
I. | iii. | 162 | wore | weare |
I. | iii. | 236 | Waspe-tongu'd | waspe-stung Q1 |
waspe-tongue Q2-5 | ||||
II. | ii. | 10 | Theefe company | theeues companie |
II. | ii. | 21 | I | ile |
II. | ii. | 79 | Iesu | Iesus |
II. | ii. | 97 | no moe valour | no more valour |
II. | iii. | 30 | skim'd Milk | skim milke |
II. | iii. | 63 | agone | ago |
II. | iii. | 109 | farre wilt I | far wil I Q1-4 |
farewill I Q5 | ||||
II. | iv. | 137 | Ye fatch paunch | Ye fat paunch |
V. | i. | 72 | articulated | articulate |
V. | i. | 83 | our Armies | your armies |
V. | ii. | 30 | what newe-? | what newes? |
V. | iii. | 13 | Lords Staffords death | Lords Staffords death |
V. | iii. | 40 | likes starke | lies starke |
V. | iv. | 6 | you retirement | your retirement |
V. | iv. | 39 | they head | they head |
Most of the above are errors of a trivial kind. Unfortunately, it was not only letters that B added, omitted and altered in reproducing his copy. Two words are omitted in A's pages (one only if 'Hart' at III.i.248 had been deleted as an oath); there are thirty omissions in the pages set by B (thirty-one if the loss of a biblical allusion at I.ii.86-7 was accidental). I again give the Folio reading in the first column, indicating the point at which the word or words were omitted by an asterisk; the second column records the Q1-5 words omitted.
Compositor A | ||||
II. | iv. | 249 | yea, and can shew it you * in the House | here |
III. | i. | 248 | * You sweare like a Comfit-makers Wife | Hart |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | ii. | 40 | As is the hony * | of Hibla |
I. | ii. | 55 | were it * heere apparant | not |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | ii. | 118 | Else he had * damn'd | bin |
I. | ii. | 125 | to morrow * in Eastcheape | night |
I. | ii. | 175 | * But I doubt | Yea |
I. | iii. | 23 | in your Highnesse * demanded | name |
I. | iii. | 53 | He should, or * should not | he |
I. | iii. | 77 | Why yet * doth deny his Prisoners | he |
II. | ii. | 28 | Giue * my Horse | mee |
II. | ii. | 58 | Ned * and I | Poines |
II. | ii. | 60 | how many be * of them? | there Q1 |
they Q2-5 | ||||
II. | ii. | 66 | * Wee'l leaue that | Well |
II. | iii. | 85 | * if thou wilt not | and |
tel me * true | all things | |||
II. | iv. | 7 | can call them * | all |
by their * names | Christian Q5 | |||
II. | iv. | 75 | dost thou * heare | not |
II. | iv. | 112 | and mend them * too | and foote them |
II. | iv. | 119 | a Cup of Sacke with * in't (uncorr.) | lime in it |
a Cup of Sack with lime * (corr). | ||||
III. | iii. | 129 | Thou art * vniust man | an |
III. | iii. | 187 | of * two and twentie | the age of |
IV. | i. | 13 | What Letters hast * there? | thou |
V. | i. | 71 | in * yonger enterprize | your |
V. | i. | 130 | * But how if Honour pricke me off | yea |
V. | iii. | 37 | and they * for the Townes end | are |
V. | iii. | 42 | Whose deaths are * vnreueng'd | yet |
* Prethy | I | |||
V. | iv. | 87 | Fare*well great heart | thee |
V. | iv. | 128 | along * me | with |
V. | v. | 14 | Beare Worcester to * death | the |
With this proneness to omit words went a tendency to interpolate them. There are six interpolations in A's pages. There are twenty-eight in B's (ignoring the interpolated word at IV.i.17, possibly supplied by the expurgator to compensate for the loss of 'Zounds' earlier in the line). I quote the Folio and italicise interpolations.
Compositor A | |||
II. | iv. | 465 | with 2 most most monstrous Watch |
III. | iii. | 69 | giuen them away to Bakers Wiues, and they (C.) |
III. | iii. | 85 | and if hee were heere |
IV. | ii. | 9 | meete me at the Townes end |
IV. | ii. | 55 | we must away all to Night |
IV. | iii. | 113 | And't may be, so wee shall |
Compositor B | |||
I. | i. | 28 | is a tweluemonth old |
I. | i. | 42 | And a thousand of his people butchered |
I. | i. | 104 | At Windsor, and so informe the Lords |
I. | ii. | 4 | in the afternoone (after noone Q1-5) |
I. | ii. | 40 | As is the hony |
I. | ii. | 161 | But how shal we |
I. | iii. | 185 | To answer all the Debt he owes vnto you (to Q1-4, om. Q5) |
I. | iii. | 211 | Good Cousin giue me audience for a-while, And list to me |
I. | iii. | 256 | Good Vncle tell your tale, for I haue done |
I. | iii. | 277 | Vpon my life, it will do wond'rous well |
II. | i. | 6 | the poore Iade is wrung in the withers |
II. | i. | 10 | since Robin the Ostler dyed |
II. | i. | 15 | a King in Christendome (a King christen Q1-5) |
II. | i. | 76 | or rather, not to pray to her |
II. | i. | 85 | I thinke rather |
II. | i. | 86 | to the Fernseed |
II. | ii. | 22 | as good a deede as to drinke |
II. | ii. | 27 | a plague light vpon you all |
II. | iii. | 14 | as good a plot as (a good plot, as Q1-5) |
II. | iv. | 15 | then they cry hem |
II. | iv. | 50 | Anon, anon sir |
II. | iv. | 57 | O Lord sir |
III. | iii. | 146 | as thou art a Prince |
III. | iii. | 171 | and cherish thy Guests |
V. | i. | 25 | With quiet houres: For I do protest (C., D.W.) |
V. | ii. | 94 | Whose worthy temper I intend to staine |
V. | iv. | 84 | But that the Earth, and the cold hand of death (earthy and Q1; earth and Q2-5) |
V. | iv. | 162 | If I do grow great again, Ile grow lesse |
It is unlikely that all these interpolations were accidental and it would be tempting to suppose that an editor, rather than the compositor, was responsible for some of this conjectural bodging, reminiscent of the patching up of metrically faulty lines in the Folio Richard III. The obstacles are that the tendency to interpolate is just as strong in prose as in verse and that there is no evidence of a metrical improver's hand in the pages set by A. Sometimes the Q5 line was halting, but at V.ii.94 the remedy was not far to seek since the two missing syllables were at the end of the preceding line. The interpolation of 'wond'rous' in I.iii.277 is particularly suspicious since the fancied need for these two syllables cannot have occurred until after the compositor had split the Folio line:
Vpon my life, it will do well
It is consequently not surprising that most of the verbal substitutions
Compositor A | ||||
III. | i. | 32 | tombles | topples |
III. | i. | 131 | Candlestick | cansticke |
III. | i. | 172 | doe crosse | come crosse |
III. | ii. | 156 | intemperature (D.W., A.) | intemperance |
III. | iii. | 24 | thy Life | my life |
IV. | i. | 85 | Dreame | tearme Q1-4; deame Q5 |
IV. | ii. | 31 | them that haue (C.) | them as haue |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | ii. | 168 | I,but | Yea but |
I. | iii. | 26 | As was | As is Q1-4; As he Q5 |
I. | iii. | 27 | Who either through enuy | Either enuie therefore, or |
I. | iii. | 28 | Was guilty | Is guiltie |
I. | iii. | 60 | That | This |
I. | iii. | 66 | Made me to answer | I answered |
I. | iii. | 128 | Although it be with | Albeit I make a |
I. | iii. | 133 | In his behalfe | Yea on his part |
I. | iii. | 135 | downfall | down-trod |
II. | i. | 9 | this | that |
II. | i. | 13 | is | be Q1-4; to be Q5 |
II. | i. | 76 | vnto | to |
II. | i. | 89 | purpose | purchase |
II. | i. | 93 | the Gelding | my gelding |
II. | ii. | 10 | that | the |
II. | iii. | 19 | if I | and I |
II. | iii. | 96 | thou speak'st | you speake |
II. | iii. | 103 | thee | you |
II. | iv. | 10 | telling me | and tel me |
III. | iii. | 115 | nothing | thing |
III. | iii. | 151 | if | and |
V. | iii. | 11 | to yeeld, thou haughty | to yeeld thou proud Q5 |
a yeelder thou proud Q1-4 | ||||
V. | iv. | 149 | take't on | take it vpon |
The distribution of these Folio variants is noticeably more patchy than that of any group hitherto considered. At first sight it looks as if an editorial hand had been at work on I.iii, but if there was editorial tinkering in this scene it seems to have been singularly pointless. 'I answered indirectly (as I said)', the quarto line at I.iii.66, is regular and has the briskness appropriate to Hotspur; 'Made me to answer indirectly (as I said.)' has nothing to recommend it. An alternative explanation of
Compositor A | ||||
II. | iv. | 270 | good Titles of Fellowship | titles of good fellowship |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | ii. | 91 | now I am | now am I |
I. | iii. | 112 | let him not | let not him |
I. | iii. | 145 | was he not | was not he |
I. | iii. | 233 | haue poyson'd him | haue him poisoned |
V. | i. | 137 | Is it insensible | tis insensible |
V. | ii. | 3 | Then we are | Then are we |
V. | ii. | 93 | heere I draw | here draw I |
V. | v. | 2 | did we not | did not we |
If we pause to consider what the variants so far amount to, what we have is as follows:
A (11 pp.) | B (14½ pp.) | ||
List (a) | 9 | 17 | Errors of Q5 corrected |
(b) | 3 | 5 | Errors of Q1-5 corrected |
(c) | 2 | 24 | Literal errors |
(d) | 2 | 30 | Words omitted |
(e) | 6 | 28 | Words interpolated |
(f) | 7 | 23 | Words altered |
(g) | 1 | 8 | Transpositions |
-- | -- | ||
30 | 135 | ||
-- | -- |
The corrections are too few and too haphazard to provide any clear indication as to when, by whom, or on what authority they were made. The considerable number of Q5 errors that escaped correction, as well as the Folio's failure to elucidate cruxes common to all known quartos, precludes our postulating even a desultory attempt at collation with a playhouse manuscript, and the Folio stage directions provide no warrant for supposing that the quarto had been used as prompt-copy. Nor, apparently, had the quarto been annotated by someone with a professional interest in flourishes, hautboys, cornets, and so on, like some of the quartos used for Folio reprints. At the same time, that the quarto came from the theatre is probably the inference to be drawn from the Folio's speech-prefix alterations in II.iv, and casual correction by someone familiar with the play would explain a few of the Folio readings in list (a) that seem too acute to be satisfactorily explained as conjectural: A's restoration of 'engrosse vp' at III.ii.148, for instance, or B's restoration of 'fat' at V.iv.107. Nor, in the present state of our knowledge, can we safely exclude the possibility that the copy was looked over when it reached Jaggard and conjecturally emended whenever a manifest breakdown in the sense or metre was noticed. That the preterite was wanted at II.iv.252 and IV.iii.70 is plain from the context and what was missing at IV.iv.16 is clear from IV.iv.14. Corrections like these might have been made editorially.
Consequently it follows that some of the readings in lists (c) to (g) were conjectural emendations in the example of Q5, just as it is possible that some of the corrections in lists (a) and (b) were due to the compositors' accidental losses, interpolations, and transpositions. But, whatever we lay to the account of a playhouse scribbler or an editorial hand,
Q1 was not, on the whole, badly equipped as regards stage directions, though it certainly lacked the finish that would be necessary in a promptbook. Its major omissions are not remedied in the Folio, though trivial alterations are numerous. In the items included in my first list below there is enough common ground in the work of the two compositors to make it probable that at least some of the changes found in the Folio had been made editorially in their copy.
Compositor A | |||
II. | iv. | 317 | Places Falstaff's entry (after 315, Q1-5) after 316 |
II. | iv. | 487 | Supplies Exit for Falstaff |
III. | ii. | 162 | Places Blunt's entry (after 162, Q1-5) after 161 |
III. | iii. | 51 | Places Hostess' entry (after 52, Q3-5) after 50 |
IV. | i. | 136 | Substitutes 'Exeunt Omnes' for 'Exeunt' |
IV. | iii. | 113 | Supplies Exeunt at end of scene |
Compositor B | |||
I. | iii. | 130 | Restores Worcester's entry (Q1-4; om. Q5) |
II. | i. | 94 | Supplies Exeunt at end of scene |
II. | iv. | 82 | Places Poins' entry (after 83, Q1-5) after 82 |
III. | iii. | 205 | Substitutes 'Exeunt omnes' for 'Exeunt' |
V. | ii. | 28 | Places Hotspur's entry (after 25, Q1-5) after 27 |
V. | iii. | 29 | Supplies Exeunt for Hotspur and Douglas |
V. | iii. | 59 | Supplies Exit at end of scene |
V. | iv. | 25 | Supplies entry for Douglas |
V. | iv. | 110 | Restores Exit for Prince (Q1-3; om. Q4-5) |
V. | v. | 15 | Supplies Exit for Worcester and Vernon |
Compositor A | ||||
IV. | ii. | 73 | Q | Exit (om. F) |
IV. | iv. | Q | Enter Archbishop (Enter the Arch-Bishop F) | |
Compositor B | ||||
I. | ii. | Q | Enter prince of Wales, and Sir Iohn Falstaffe (Enter Henry Prince of Wales, Sir Iohn Falstaffe, and Pointz F) | |
I. | ii. | 103 | Q | Enter Poines (om. F) |
I. | ii. | 210 | Q | Exit (om. F) |
I. | iii. | Q | . . . with others (and others F) | |
I. | iii. | 21 | Q | Exit Wor. (om. F) |
I. | iii. | 302 | Q | Exeunt (exit F) |
II. | ii. | Q | Enter Prince, Poines, and Peto, &c. (om. &c. F) | |
II. | ii. | 75 | Q | Enter the trauailers (om. the F) |
II. | ii. | 94 | Q | Enter the theeues againe (om. the F) |
II. | ii. | 99 | Q | As they are sharing the Prince & Poins set vpon them, they all runne away, and Falstalffe after a blow or two runs away too, leauing the bootie behind them (om. italicised words F) |
IV. | i. | Q | Enter Hotspur . . . (om. Q1; Enter Harrie Hotspurre . . . F) | |
IV. | i. | 12 | Q | Enter one with letters (Enter a Messenger F) |
V. | i. | 120 | Q | manent Prince, Falst. (Manet Prince and Falstaffe F) |
V. | ii. | 90 | Q | Enter another (Enter another Messenger F) |
V. | ii. | 101 | Q | Here they embrace . . . (om. Here F) |
V. | iii. | Q | the king enters (the King entereth F) to the battel (vnto the battell F) | |
V. | iii. | 13 | Q | They fight, Douglas kils Blunt, then enter (enters Q4-5) Hotspur (Fight, Blunt is slaine, then enters Hotspur F) |
V. | iii. | 30 | Q | Alarme, Enter . . . (Alarum, and enter . . . F) |
V. | iii. | 52 | Q | The Prince drawes it out, and finds it to be (om. to be Q5) a bottle of Sacke (The Prince drawes out a Bottle of Sacke F) |
V. | iii. | 53 | Q | He throwes the bottle at him. Exit. (Exit. Throwes it at him F) |
V. | iv. | 38 | Q | Enter Prince of Wales (om. of Wales F) |
V. | iv. | 74 | Q | They fight (Fight F) |
V. | iv. | 77 | Q | he fighteth (fights Q5) with Falstalffe, he fals down (he fights with Falstaffe, who fals down F) |
V. | iv. | 101 | Q | He spieth Falstalffe on the ground (om. F) |
V. | iv. | 128 | Q | He takes vp Hotspur on his backe (Takes Hotspurre on his backe F) |
The first and second variants in the above list were very probably due (as Greg suggested) to editorial tinkering, but it is reasonable to infer that most of the rest of the alterations were compositor B's since the pages of compositor A contain nothing comparable. Apart from the two alterations above, compositor A reproduced verbatim the stage directions of Q5. If there was some inspection of Folio copy after it reached Jaggard, it follows that some of the alterations in B's pages may have been editorial, but we cannot, I think, explain all his alterations in this way,
A conscientious proof-reader ought, of course, to have spotted compositor B's errors and it would be folly to generalise about Jaggard's proof-reading from the few variant formes exemplified in facsimiles. The proof-reader was sufficiently on the spot to see that something was wrong at II.iv.119 (list d), the copy was almost certainly consulted, and the correction that was made was perhaps the best that could be done in the circumstances.[7] On the same page (e3v), if facsimiles are to be trusted, 'Cop' was corrected to 'Cup' and 'Cowords' to 'Cowards'[8]; but 'fatch' for 'fat' and an anomalous 'the' for 'thee' a few lines lower escaped notice or correction. Though it may be found that in aggregate the Folio proof-corrections were numerous, it is evident that, at times at least, the reader's main preoccupation was with disorders of the most trivial kind and that fidelity to copy did not enter into consideration. We have, for instance, in the Staunton and Oxford facsimiles the uncorrected and corrected versions of p. 71 (f5r), set by B (V.ii.79-V.iv.29). The following errors were corrected:
V. | ii. | 100 | earte | to | earth |
101 | sucond | second | |||
sdch | such |
V. | ii. | 93 | Q | and here draw I | F | And heere I draw |
94 | Whose temper | Whose worthy temper | ||||
V. | iii. | 11 | thou proud | thou haughty | ||
13 | Lord Staffords | Lords Staffords | ||||
37 | and they are for | and they for | ||||
40 | lies starke | likes starke | ||||
42 | are yet vnreuengd | are vnreueng'd | ||||
I preethe | Prethy | |||||
V. | iv. | 6 | your retirement | you retirement |
It is therefore evident that we may find, when surviving copies of the First Folio have been collated, that an editor has been left to do much of the work that should have been done by Jaggard's proof-reader and the many obvious errors on Folio pages which are known to survive in their corrected state would make it seem over-optimistic to hope for anything better. The only reasonable interpretation of the hundred and thirteen errors in B's pages of the Folio 1 Henry IV, as against eighteen only in A's, is that they were for the most part due to the compositor's negligence; and even if we assumed that they included a liberal contribution of conjectural improvements, made in the copy and unaccountably concentrated in the parts that it fell to B's lot to reproduce, editorially the position is no better. If there was conjectural interference with the copy for one play there may have been tinkering with the copy for all, and the conjectural alterations of an erratic improver are as much a blemish on an edited text as the careless errors of a compositor. The latter is a serious proposition, but we have at least the advantage of being able to determine, from the character of his spelling and from the number of manifest errors in his work, when we should be particularly on guard; but if we are dealing with an irresponsible editor, who tinkered unsystematically and on no ascertainable principles, then the situation is desperate indeed.
The question is whether we must expect to find errors of this kind, and in comparable numbers, in other Folio texts. Since the average number of variants in the dialogue of 1 Henry IV set by B is close on eight to a page, we are faced with the possibility that there may be at least two hundred errors in the Folio Lear and Othello for which compositor B was solely responsible. Must we assume that these two texts are pitted with holes and corrupted by interpolations and perversions of the wording? I think we must and that it is, in any case, plain that all is not as it should have been in these two texts. There is a lacuna in the Folio Othello (a line, phrase, or word omitted to the detriment of the metre or the sense) on between fifty and sixty occasions and this is what we should expect to find from the evidence of 1 Henry IV. The omissions may be even more numerous in the Folio Lear, since some allowance must be made for accidental omissions in the prompt-book.
We must naturally expect to find some variation in a compositor's work between one play and another and even between one page and another. Haste doubtless led to excessive carelessness and prose must have
Unless the context gives a clear indication of what is wanted, conservatism is inevitable in the case of Folio plays set from manuscript. However grave the suspicion of error, it is often wiser to accept what we have than to emend and run the risk of substituting one corruption for another. But in the case of plays printed from corrected quartos we are in a far more fortunate position. Though the quarto as a whole may have less authority than its Folio counterpart, by far the majority of the readings in the quartos of Richard III, Troilus and Cressida, Lear and Othello are not under suspicion. We are therefore not using these quartos to advantage if we reject what they have to offer both as a check on the readings of the Folio and as a means of correcting its errors. The errors can only be weeded out by bringing to bear on the readings all the relevant literary and linguistic considerations, but it is a help to know (even if it is only roughly) how many errors and what kind of errors a compositor may have introduced.
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