University of Virginia Library

See "Early Editions of Greene's 'Quip for an Upstart Courtier' (1592)," The Gentleman's Magazine, CCC (1906), 68-71. In Robert Greene et ses romans (Paris, 1938), pp. 474-475, n., René Pruvost discusses the editions of this tract. Because of his ambiguous terminology, it is difficult to ascertain whether he believes that there were three or four editions in 1592. Although he notes that S.T.C. entry 12301a, collating A1-F3, supposedly in the Huntington Library, is erroneous, later he appears to accept this non-existent copy as a separate printing. Thus he identifies the editions called here Q1a-b, Q4 (the White copy, now in the Harvard Library), and Q5 (the copy in the British Museum, which is a later state of this printing, as I indicate below.)

The Ashley copy differs from the Harvard copy in the following respects (the readings from the Harvard copy appear first:

• A3v, l. 38, gaue: geue
• B2, l. 38, than: then
• B3v, l. 37, tye: tie
• C2, CW (fa-) thers: (fa-)there
• C3, CW, though: through
• F3 [unsigned]: [signed]

On sigs. B3 and C3 the signatures are placed differently, and on sig. F1v the RT is placed differently. In the above list it will be noted that all variants occur in the last line of the text, in the direction-line, or in the running-title, except in the case of sig. B3v, where the change appears in the third line from the bottom of the page. Thus these variants probably indicate loosened type during the course of the same run. If this was the case, then, the appearance of corrected sheets, sigs. B2 and C3 in Ashley and sigs. A3v and C2 in Harvard, is attributable to the mixing of sheets in binding. If this explanation is correct, the use of the standing type of sigs. C2 and F1v in Q4 and Q5 is understandable. It also becomes clear why on sig. B2 Q3 and Ashley coincide in a variant reading as against Harvard, and why on sig. B3v Q3 and Harvard coincide in a variant reading as against Ashley.

The BM copy has a number of stop-press corrections (the readings from the Folger copy appear first):

• A3, l. 11 wanean: wantan Almongst: A mongst CW thu:thus
• A4v 18 heerein: herein 25 io: to 26 thareby . . . that: thereby . . . t at 27 bralwing: brawling
• B2v 8 presse: pressd 20 outlandish . . . me: vplandish . . . mee 31 when you: whenyou
• B3 26 faest: facst

The only significant alteration occurs on sig. B2v, l. 20, where the printer evidently checked earlier editions and restored in the BM copy the original reading "vplandish". (Q6 reprints "outlandish".)

This catch-word was corrected while Q5 was being run through the press. See footnote 3.

See footnote 2.

Although the Harvey passage consists of twenty-two lines in Q1a, the second issue of this edition lacks only thirteen lines, because the printer spaced out words, eliminated contracted forms, and added words and phrases. See footnote 8.

See my "Deletions in Robert Greene's A Quip for an Upstart Courtier (1592)," The Huntington Library Quarterly, XV (1952), 277-282.

The following emendations which appear in Q1b are retained in all subsequent printings (the readings from Q1a appear first, and signature and line references pertain only to that edition):

• E3, l. 33 of: vpō
• E3v 14 may see: may apparantly see 15 Pillorie: Pillory, (in the sight of a great many good and sufficiente witnesses,) 21 a cudgell: a good crab-tree cudgell
• E4 25 questioned them their: questioned with them of their seuerall 27 the third: and the third
• E4v 2 the statutes: the aunciente lawes and Statutes
• F4v 32 as: [omitted] 37 weight, you: weight by many ounces, you

Another error in Q2 is comprehensible only if this edition preceded Q3 and Q4. On sig. F4, l. 3, a new paragraph begins illogically in the middle of a sentence with "Whome". In Q1b there is no paragraph at this point, but in Q3 and in all later editions a paragraph begins with the words "Worshipfull sir" in the preceding line. The compositor of Q2 probably misinterpreted the author's (or printer's) paragraph symbol in the margin of Q1b.

Representative examples of the corrections made in Q3 are cited below (the readings from Q2 appear first):

• E1v, l. 7 rhem: them 12 will: well
• E2 22 pradon: pardon
• E2v 25 willl: will
• F1v 15 mau: man
• F2v 10 a is: is a

In Q2 the last line of sig. E4 and the first line of the next page read:

(Because of cropping, the catch-word is taken from Q3.) In Q3 the first line of sig. E4v reads correctly: "of the quest. mary (quoth sir Ihon) a good motion, know these all".

In the resetting of sig. B1 of Q4, the following changes appear (the readings from Q3 appear first):

• B1 l. 19 Fense schoole: Fence scoole 31 country: countrie 33 England Nor: England. Nor

Probably because of movement of type, we find that "in costy" on sig. B4v, l. 2, of Q3, appears as one word "incosty" in Q4.

The following line is omitted in Q4 on sig. B4 after l. 11: "preach the Gospell: the Lawier to reforme wronges and maintaine".

There are two fairly obvious alterations in the placement of the letters in the title: the A is further to the left of the O in "FOR" in Q6, and the O in "FOR" and C in "Courtier", which are directly under each other in Q2-Q5, are not aligned in the sixth edition.

In preparing this paper, I am indebted to the following for their generous cooperation: Mr. William A. Jackson, of the Houghton Library; Mr. Herman R. Mead, of the Huntington Library; Mr. H. M. Nixon, of the British Museum; and Mr. Lars Hanson, of the Bodleian Library. The late Dr. A. S. Rosenbach kindly granted me permission to examine his copy of the Quip. Dr. W. H. Bond, of the Houghton Library, made many invaluable suggestions, as did the editor of Studies in Bibliography.