University of Virginia Library

The Good Natur'd Man

Within a year of its publication in 1768 Goldsmith's first play ran through five impressions, two of which are unlabelled, two called a "New Edition," and one described, not inappropriately, as a "Fifth Edition." The first was announced in the Public Advertiser on Friday 5 February and another promised in the same paper on the following Tuesday.

Since the reference here is specifically to a "new edition" I presume that the one offered at 3 p.m. was the earliest printing so distinguished on its title, or the third impression in this sequence. If so, the second, undesignated impression must have been prepared as a supplement to the "large impression" and may therefore have appeared on Saturday, the day after publication. That it was so designed is evident from its construction, representing for five gatherings (A-C, I-K) an overprint of the first run through the press, for one (L) a mixture of states identical with those in the original printing, and for the remaining five (D-H) a new impression from standing type. Only in this last section are there any signs of reprinting, evident here both in the press figures and in textual corrections.[3]

Following its notice of the one "New Edition" the Advertiser has no other reference until the 22d of February, when it lists another "New Edition, being the fourth" or, in our terminology, the fourth in the series of impression. Both of these "New" and the later "Fifth Edition" were reimpressed throughout and contain numerous revisions.

Through all impressions the most extensive revision occurs in the

final gathering L2. Here there are two series of alterations, one affecting the first two immediately related impressions, the other the last and separate three. In the one sequence the compositor juggles a note which Goldsmith belatedly supplied for the epilogue on page [75], appending it first at the bottom of the page (state b), then—to justify the register—transposing it with the last four lines of verse to the top of the next page (state c), and finally—to realign the note with its reference—returning it to [75] and displacing four more lines of verse to the next page (state d). Since with the exception of b all of these shifts involve both sides of the final leaf, it is obvious that, with the same exception, none of these alterations were made at press. Otherwise, in half-sheet imposition, the perfection of sheets on the same forme would produce here (as in the other play) a combination of two unrelated states.

After settling the troublesome note, the compositor provided for the later impressions a second setting (B) to replace some other matter that had previously occupied the available space in chase L. For the imposition of quarters in octavo the customary layout, as described by Stower,[4] is in parallel ranges or, in this circumstance: When the sheets are perfected end to end, according to normal procedure, the letter of one setting is always kept apart from the other. For the third impression, however, this sheet apparently was perfected side to side, a maneuver which can be permitted only when, as in this case, the letter is in duplicate. Resulting from this are two further alterations in the gathering, one with the outer "forme" of A perfected upon the inner of B:

the other with the outer of B perfected upon the inner of A: Both of these occur, I believe, only in the third (or first "New") impression.

In the last two impressions each of these settings was imposed separately, B alone, apparently, being used for the fourth (state g) and A

alone for the fifth (state h). In each of these the final line of the epilogue, previously reading is altered to read