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Notes
The research on which this note is based was completed while the writer held a grant-in-aid from the American Council of Learned Societies. Additional assistance was received from the V.M.I. Foundation, Inc.
The printer, who is unnamed, is identified by means of the device used on the title-page. See W. W. Greg, A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, II (1951), 519.
"The Shares of Fletcher and his Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (III)," Studies in Bibliography, XI (1958), 97.
I examined the copy of Q1 in the Folger Shakespeare Library. The librarians of the following collections were kind enough to examine the D3v and D4v running-titles in their copies: Bodleian Library, Oxford (two copies — Malone 243 (1) and 4° P2(5) Art.BS.); Boston Public Library; British Museum (three copies, including the Wise copy); Chapin Library, Williams College; The Elizabethan Club of Yale University; Henry E. Huntington Library; The Library of Congress; Trinity College Library, Cambridge; University of Texas Library; Victoria and Albert Museum. All report the "f" unbroken on D4v but broken on D3v.
Cf. Ronald B. McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students (1928), pp. 182-183.
See Fredson Bowers, "Elizabethan Proofing," Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies (1948), p. 574.
The plays are the following: Albumazar Q1 (1615), Albumazar Q2 (1615), The Four Prentices of London Q1 (1615), Mucedorus Q6 (1615), The Honest Whore Q4 (1615-1616), The Insatiate Countess Q2 (1616), Lingua Q3 (1617), The Maid's Tragedy Q1 (1619), Philaster Q1 (1620), Thierry Q1 (1621), Othello Q1 (1622), Philaster Q2 (1622), Lingua Q4 (1622), The Duchess of Malfi Q1 (1623), and The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron Q2 (1625). The last is two plays printed together.
See Turner, "The Printing of The Maid's Tragedy Q1," Studies in Bibliography, XIII (1960), 199 ff., where the workman is designated Compositor T.
I have been unable to find evidence of this man's work in Okes's dramatic quartos published before 1619, the date of The Maid's Tragedy Q1. John Okes, who gained his freedom in 1627, should have begun his apprenticeship about this time, and, to compound speculation, he might have assisted the regular compositors during the early part of his training. Possibly he was Compositor B of Thierry.
All indications are that the markings are contemporaneous with the leaf, the existence of which was called to my attention by Mr. John Alden of the Boston Public Library. Mr. Alden furnishes the following information regarding it: "The leaf is definitely an insert and disjunct: removed, no doubt, from an imperfect copy. It contains on the inner margin a watermark, that of a vase made up of crescent designs, found elsewhere in the complete copy. As to where the leaf came from, I suspect that it was inserted by Thomas Rodd, but this will have to remain a conjecture. The book itself was purchased for Thomas Pennant Barton by John Russell Smith for 17/ at the Sotheby-Wilkinson auction of 23 May 1856 and is described in the Catalogue of a Very Valuable and Important Collection of Shakesperian and Dramatic Literature as item no. 150. In referring to this sale, both Russell Smith and the British Museum's catalogue of English book auctions identify the books as coming from the possession of Halliwell-Phillipps. On one of the blank fly-leaves, provided by the early 19th-century binder, there appears a manuscript annotation, as follows. 'The duplicate title at the end [pasted down inside the back cover] is added on account of a ms. note showing the original price of the book ["d 1-2"?]; & the duplicate leaf, sig. C., because it has some contemporary corrections of the text.' If I am not mistaken, this annotation is in the hand of the dealer Thomas Rodd. I suspect he inserted the leaf and title page in the volume, had it bound, and sold it to Halliwell-Phillipps." I am much indebted not only to Mr. Alden but also to the Trustees of the Boston Public Library, who gave permission to reproduce the leaf.
See John Russell Brown, "A Proof-Sheet from Nicholas Okes' Printing-Shop," Studies in Bibliography, XI (1958), 228-231.
So emended by Dyce, following Seward; see The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher (1843), I, 123. Darley emends to "care and hidden arts"; see The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher (1859), II, 409.
See F. P. Wilson and Margaret McLaren Cook (eds.), Demetrius and Enanthe, Malone Society Reprint (1950 [1951]), p. 121 and W. W. Greg, The Shakespeare First Folio (1955), p. 154.
Massinger himself inserted parentheses in the printed copies of The Bondman, The Renegado, The Emperor of the East, The Roman Actor, and The Picture. See W. W. Greg, "More Massinger Corrections," The Library, Fourth Series, V (1925), 64-71.
This expression apparently was a standard Massinger formula. We find it in The Bondman (1624) K4. The City - Madam (1659) C2, The Roman Actor (1629) B1v, and The Picture (1630) E1v. A similar expression, Exeunt omnes, manent . . . , occurs in a Massinger scene of The Virgin Martyr; see Fredson Bowers (ed.), The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, III (1958), 391.
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