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For the characteristics of this compositor and for analysis of the running titles in the plays from Creede's shop see my unpublished dissertation, "The 'Good' Quarto of Romeo and Juliet," University of Virginia, 1957. The quartos discussed here have all been examined at the Folger Shakespeare Library and/or on University Microfilms. For none of these quartos does the STC list an earlier edition; I assume therefore, subject to correction, that all of the plays are first editions, set from manuscript.

[6]

This is an oversimplification. Two 'w' sorts appear at the top of the page in lines 1-3; they are followed by nine 'vv' forms in lines 4-13; they by a single 'w' in line 14; it by the remaining 21 'vv' forms. The single 'w' in line 14 is clearly a piece that had been misplaced and was discovered by the compositor in time to be set in the middle of the page. The three 'W' forms occur in lines 1-24; the two 'VV' forms in lines 24-36.

[7]

Surprising as it may seem, indifference to the w/vv distinction is indicated by the compositor of the 1613 quarto of The Insatiate Countesse, who uses the two forms indiscriminately or possibly as a means of justification.

[8]

This is not an argument that can be advanced in texts of any length, but in this short work it seems valid. Distribution in the middle of a sheet is common (see below).

[9]

A different order for the pages of sheet A is suggested by the apparent shortage of 'k' and the substitution of 'k':

	A1	2v	3	4v	1v	2	3v	4
k	4	3	4	2	-	6
k				1			5	10

As this order violates the order of imposition and printing as disclosed by the running-title evidence and as the witness from 'k' is far from dependable in the rest of the quarto, it seems safest to follow the unequivocal and consistent evidence of the shortage of 'w'. If one could believe that the single 'vv' on A1 was the result of influence from the preceding 'VV' and that the title page was composed first in the sheet rather than last, this theory would account for the four proper 'k' forms on that page. But the presence of the 'vv' — and of the 'VV' too — would seem to militate against this position. Though the shortage of 'W' is not dependable as evidence, the presence of the substitute on the first page of the quarto to be set seems unlikely. It is of interest to note that the running title for A3 contains the proper italic 'k' while that for A4 has the 'k.'

[10]

Evidence from running titles indicates that outer B preceded inner through the press.

[11]

Of the ten pages on which both forms occur, the divisions of 'w' and 'vv' are clearcut and distinct on A4, B3, B3v, G4v, H1, and H3v. On D4v, E4v, and G1v only one of the proper sort is misplaced. On C3v the order is mixed: 7 w, 1 vv, 10 w, 1 vv, 2 w, 3 vv.

[12]

The sprinkling of the 'I' substitutions mixed with 'I' on D3 may conceivably be traced to a missorting of the substitutions in the distribution of page B4. As B inner was probably distributed at the beginning of sheet D, the substitutions might well turn up in a single cluster of missorts on a subsequent page. (C outer, however, was distributed in the middle of D2v.)

[13]

The distribution of B inner at the beginning of sheet D yields 75 'w' pieces. These are used up by line 23 of D2v. The italic 'A' substitution occurs in lines 13 through 25; the proper form resumes in line 31. The proximity of the final substitute 'A' in line 25 and the anticipated but not realized exhaustion of 'w' in line 24 would suggest that at some point near lines 24 and 25 the distribution of C outer took place.

[14]

In the discussion following the oral presentation of this paper, Mr. Hinman rendered this supposition less startling by pointing to an analogy in the printing of the Shakespeare First Folio.

[15]

Another indication that this hypothesis is correct is provided by the pattern of swash italic capital 'M' in the text. Such sorts appear once on each of these pages: B1, B3, C1, C3, D1, D4v, E3, E4v, and twice on E4. It is thus seen that only two of these pieces were available to the compositor (two more were left standing and used regularly in the recto running titles) who used them in the outer formes of sheets B, C, D, and E. They do not appear in half-sheet F where we should normally have expected them, but they do appear in the inner forme of sheet E. This reappearance out of normal order indicates that one forme, viz., half-sheet F, has intervened between the composition of the formes of sheet E.

[16]

Mr. Sidney Thomas ("The Date of The Comedy of Errors," SQ, VII [1956], 381-382) has suggested that the "long-tailed title" for the entry of the Menechmi in the Stationers' Register was probably taken from an edition already in print by 1594 of which no copies have survived. But this title must have been taken from the manuscript copy which Creede tells us has circulated "for the use and delight of [the author's] private friends," for the printer promises further plays of Plautus if the Menechmi receives "courteous acceptance" (sig. A3). As no other Plautine comedies were published for another century (Wing lists P-2415 in 1694), it would seem unlikely that another edition had preceded Creede's of 1595. Bibliographical evidence that the 1595 edition was a small one corroborates the historical probability that there had been no demand for an earlier edition.

[17]

On the evidence of the running titles in the DFo copy of the play it appears that the outer forme of sheet I preceded the inner through the press.

[18]

Harry R. Hoppe, The Bad Quarto of Romeo and Juliet (1948), pp. 47-56.

[19]

Running titles suggest that inner H may have preceded outer through the press. Type-shortage evidence in the latter half of the sheet would corroborate the theory, arguing that X composed in the order 3v 4 4v 3.

[20]

The figures for K4 are included in this table, because though that page was set by Compositor Y it was set from the cases of Compositor X. This hypothesis is proved (1) by the shortage of 'W' on the page, a shortage common in the sections set by X but not found in the sections set by Y and (2) by the appearance of a swash italic capital 'I' on the page, one of five (?) such pieces in the case of Compositor X found on no other pages set by Y. The italic "R" in the catchword on 13v is not included in these figures as it seems to be from a font of a larger sort in the DFo copy; it seems normal in the CSmH film.