University of Virginia Library

The tailpiece appears on these signatures: 3143 (B4,S2v), 3144 (A4,K2,Cc3), 3150 (Ee7v), 4496 (A5v), 7151 (A4), 13717 (Xx1v, Fff4v, Ggg5v, Hhh6, Iii3,8), 22214 (d6,E2v), 22325 (L4), 22634 (¶¶4,6v, C3v, 5,E6,G4v,L3v,T3v), 22772 (B2v). I have consulted the appropriate volumes at these libraries: DFo 3143, 3144, 3150, 4496, 7151, 22325, 22634, 22772; NcD 3144, 22214; NcU 13717; ViU 22634. I am grateful for the assistance of S. K. Heninger, Jr., John L. Lievsay, Robert F. Welsh for examining volumes in libraries I was not able to reach. I acknowledge with thanks the courtesy of the Trustees and Staffs of the various libraries who allowed me to consult their volumes and have them photographed.

All the copies in America: DFo; photographs MB, MH, CSmH (2 cops.), CtYEC.

It is of some interest to record that this ribbon appears broken (as one would expect) on ¶4 of the preliminaries of volume IV of Purchas his Pilgrims (STC 20509), printed by Stansby in 1625. It appears unbroken on Ii6 of volume I of the same work. It follows that the preliminaries of this massive compilation were printed in 1625 (as they acknowledge), but that the first volume was sent to press shortly after the entry in the Stationers' Register on Dec. 11, 1621, and was being printed in 1622 concurrently with Romeo and Juliet.

Works of Drayton (Rev. ed., London, 1961), V, 288. On the basis of break #2, STC 7219 is certainly in or after 1617; on the basis of no break on the inner curl of the topmost frond at the extreme left, it is before or in 1618.

Charlton Hinman dates the beginning of composition on the Folio at February 1622; Romeo and Juliet was composed in the Folio in the late spring of 1623 (The Printing and Proof-Reading of the First Folio of Shakespeare [Oxford, 1963], I, 363-365; II, 513-529).