University of Virginia Library

VIII

Passages not represented in Q must of course have been either printed direct from manuscript, or from a transcript, probably on a slip or sheet of paper that could be inserted or pasted into the copy. That some transcription was done is rendered likely by the evidence of mislineation in such passages; though of course mislineation, of itself, proves little, and could arise from many other causes. In particular, IV.i.226-245, a piece of blank verse throughout, is mislined by F in one way, and by editors in another.

The corrector seems also to have used transcription, on at least one occasion, to resolve confusion in the corrected copy. He ran into trouble for the first time at the foot of B1r, where, as on the verso, heavy correction was necessary, as well as the transposition of various lines from verso to

recto. Transcription is suggested by the manuscript-type error "name" (II.i.23) for the correct Q reading "mare".

However that may be, the evidence points to this limitation on transcription, namely, that F peculiarities previously detailed cannot be so explained where the text is common to F and Q, nor would transcription seem to require the use of two quartos.