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Shirley's Coronation and
Love Will
Find out the Way: Erroneous Title-Pages.
by
T. J. King
Studies relating to printing house practice have shown that compositors did not always distribute title-page type immediately after the printing of the forme in which this type was first used; sometimes all or part of the title-page was left standing for later use in the printing of advertisements or another issue of the work. Here we note how this practice may have contributed to errors in title-page inscriptions for two plays by James Shirley.[1]
i
Although Sir Henry Herbert records a Revels license for "The Coronation by James Shirley" on February 6, 1634/5,[2] the authorship of the play is not specified in the Stationers' Register entry of April 25, 1639: "Mr Crooke wm Cooke Entred for their Copyes vnder the hands of Mr Wykes & Mr Rothwell warden these five playes vdlt Night walters [sic], Opportunity. Loues Cruellty, The Coronation witt without money. ijs vjd."[3] Moreover, the title-page of the 1640 quarto reads as follows: "THE / CORONATION / A COMEDY. / As it was presented by her / Majesties Servants at
Allen H. Stevenson notes that The Night Walker and Wit without Money were written by Fletcher and suggests that the error on The Coronation title-page came about because "all five plays arrived in one package and the instructions concerning them were misunderstood."[4] This may be true, but it should also be noted that of the five plays listed in the Stationers' Register entry only Wit without Money was printed in 1639; the others were not printed until 1640. Furthermore, there seems to have been no misunderstanding when Cotes printed Love's Cruelty and The Opportunity, since the title-pages of both plays correctly credit Shirley. A possible source of the printer's error may be seen by comparing the title-page of The Coronation with that of The Night Walker: "THE / NIGHT- / VVALKER, / OR THE / LITTLE THEIFE. / A COMEDY, / As it was presented by her / Majesties Servants, at the Private / House in Drury Lane. // Written by John Fletcher. Gent. // [ornament] // LONDON, / Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Andrew Crooke, / and William Cooke. 1640."
Collations of the title-pages of the Pierpont Morgan Library copies of the two plays, as well as those found in the Henry E. Huntington Library, reveal the following similarities and differences: (1) Four lines, "A COMEDY. / As it was presented by her / Majesties Servants at the private / House in Drury Lane." appear to have been printed from the same setting of type. Minor differences should be noted, however. The Coronation title-page carries a period after "COMEDY", whereas The Night Walker has a comma in the comparable position. The Night Walker has a comma after "Servants" and an upper case "P" for "Private", whereas The Coronation omits this comma and uses a lower case "p". (2) Both pages carry three two-part rules. The top rules are identical in both printings; the lower two rules appear to have been turned end to end and are set at differing vertical intervals from the top rule and from each other. (3) The author designations appear to have been printed from the same setting of type, but the ornaments are not the same and the imprints are from different settings.
These similarities indicate that at least five lines of type and three rules were left standing after one of the plays was printed; with minor changes these elements were used again in the printing of the second work. There is no evidence to establish the order in which the plays were printed; nevertheless, it is possible that the use of type left standing after the printing of The Night Walker may have led to the erroneous designation of author on the title-page of The Coronation.
ii
There is no record of a Revels license for Shirley's The Constant Maid. The Stationers' Register entry of April 28, 1640 and the first quarto printed by R. Raworth correctly credit Shirley, but the title-page carries no information concerning acting company or playhouse. Nason suggests that the work was probably written for a Dublin acting company during Shirley's stay in Ireland.[5] There is no reason to suppose that the play was performed at the Phoenix, the playhouse for which Shirley had been the regular dramatist earlier in his career. Scholars have therefore found it difficult to account for the title-page inscription for the second quarto printed in 1661 with a variant title: "[within rows of ornaments] LOVE will finde out the Way. / An Excellent / COMEDY. // By T. B. // As it was Acted with great Applause, / by Her Majesties Servants, at / the Phoenix in Drury Lane. // [lace ornament] // LONDON: / Printed by Ja: Cottrel, for Samuel Speed, at the Signe of the / Printing-Press in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1661."
Bentley notes the initials "T. B." are also affixed to the epilogue of this printing; he therefore suggests that they were carried to the title-page through a printer's error.[6] In this paper we note that the inscription concerning performance at the Phoenix may have been a printer's error brought about by the use of standing type. An advertisement following the epilogue offers evidence concerning the circumstances under which the play was printed in 1661: "There is lately Printed two excellent Comedies, en-/tituled, The Old Couple: By Thomas May Esquire. / The City-Night-Cap, or Crede quod habes & habes. / By Robert Davenport. / Both these, with variety of other Playes, are to be / sold by Samuel Speed, at the Printing Press in St. / Pauls Church-Yard. 1661."
If we examine the works mentioned in this advertisement, we see that The Old Couple is dated 1658 and that its title-page carries no information about acting company or playhouse.[7] The title-page of The City Night Cap, however, shows some obvious similarities to the title-page of Love Will Find Out the Way. The title-page of the Davenport play reads as follows:
Collation of Henry E. Huntington Library copies of the two title-pages reveals the following similarities and differences: (1) Both pages are set within flower borders of the same design, but the individual elements of the borders are in entirely different settings. (2) The titles and author designations differ, except for the word "By" which appears to have been printed from the same setting of type. (3) The City Night Cap title-page carries three rules; Love Will Find Out the Way carries four. The first and third rules in The City Night Cap exactly match the second and third rules of Love Will Find Out the Way. (4) The three-line inscription referring to the Phoenix appears to have been printed from the same setting of type. (5) The three-line imprint is also derived from the same setting of type, but with a minor variation in the horizontal position of the lowest line. It is therefore evident that after the title-page of one of the plays was printed, six lines of type were left standing, as well as the word "By" and two of the rules; these were used again in the printing of the second work.
A clue concerning the order in which the plays were printed is provided by comparing the advertisement cited above with a similar advertisement appended to The City Night Cap: "There is lately Printed an excellent Comedy, enti/tuled, The Old Couple: By Thomas May Esquire. / Also another called, Love will finde out the Way: By / T. B. / Both these, with variety of other Playes, are to be / sold by Samuel Speed, at the Printing Press in St. / Pauls Church-Yard. 1661." Collation of the two advertisements indicates that the same setting of type was used for the last three lines and for the reference to "The Old Couple: By Thomas May Esquire." The wordings of the first lines are significantly different, however. Although the advertisement in The City Night Cap mentions both The Old Couple and Love Will Find Out the Way, the first line refers to "an excellent Comedy." The first line of the advertisement found in Love Will Find Out the Way
If this conjecture is correct, it lends support to the following hypotheses concerning the sequence of events in Cottrel's shop: (1) The printer's copy for The City Night Cap correctly identified the author, playhouse, and acting company. This information was set for the title-page; after the printing of that forme at least six lines of type, two rules, and the word "By" were left standing. (2) The manuscript (or heavily emended quarto of The Constant Maid) used as copy for Love Will Find Out the Way carried no information concerning author or playhouse. The compositor found the initials "T. B." signed to the epilogue of the revised text and used these for author designation on the title-page. The imprint was needed again; when this standing type and two of the rules were set in the forme, the compositor also included the standing type for the inscription concerning the Phoenix. This part of the title-page statement may therefore have as little basis in fact as the statement that "T. B." is the author of the play.
Notes
My observations in this paper are based on a study of microfilms. I wish to express my appreciation to Mr. Lyle G. Wright, Head of Reference Department, Henry E. Huntington Library, for his help in corroborating my findings by an examination of the original quartos of the plays discussed here.
As cited in W. W. Greg, A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, I (1939), 50.
Allen H. Stevenson, "Shirley's Publishers: the Partnership of Crooke and Cooke," The Library, 4th Ser., XXV (1945), 150.
Gerald Eades Bentley, The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, V (1956), 1095-96. Bentley observes that the two printings of the play differ considerably in text; he summarizes the problem as follows: "A rough collation shows that it [Q2] is several hundred lines longer and that some pages seem to be completely revised; more of the songs are given in 1661 than in 1640. A more thorough collation might indicate whether this text would seem to have been revised for production at the Phoenix—where the title-page says it was acted but where Shirley did not work after his return from Ireland—or revised for Restoration production. There seem to be objections to either alternative. The T. B. [Theophilus Bird?] who appears as author on the 1661 title-page is unknown. . . . If he revised for a Restoration performance, why was not the Restoration performance used for advertising on the title-page?"
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