The Influence of Justification on
Spelling in
Jaggard's Compositor B
by
William S. Kable
It is a bibliographical axiom that variant spellings were an important
method used by early compositors to justify the lines of type which they
set. McKerrow, after discussing the use of variant spellings for justification,
adds a note: "It is not possible to say exactly to what extent the printers
relied on variations in spelling as a means of justification; it seems,
however, not unlikely that it was their chief expedient."[1] In Moxon's discussion of the
compositor's
trade, however, and more specifically in his remarks on composing and
correcting the type, he makes no mention of variant spellings but confines
his dicta to the use of spaces.[2]
Perhaps the pressures toward uniform spelling were too strong by the time
Moxon wrote his Mechanick Exercises in the 1680's to allow
the use of variant spellings for justification. Charlton Hinman's study of the
printing of the First Folio Shakespeare has indicated, on
the other hand, that during the setting of the Folio in the early 1620's, the
justification of long lines did in fact affect the compositors' spelling habits
for do, go, and here.[3]
A comprehensive spelling analysis of the Pavier quartos has produced
a significant body of evidence which casts light on the remarkable influence
of justification on compositorial spellings.[4] The spellings of the Pavier texts,
ten
Shakespearean and pseudo-Shakespearean reprints done in 1619 from
extant, identifiable editions dating from 1594 to 1611, reflect the spelling
pattern of Jaggard's Compositor B. It has been known for some time that
Jaggard's house produced the Paviers, and a part of the present writer's
study has been devoted to demonstrating that Compositor B did in fact set
the type throughout the Paviers. A large body of statistical information is
now at hand to reveal the profound effect of the need for
justification on the use of variant spellings by Jaggard's Compositor
B.
B is seen to display a consistently strong preference for the final
-y form of all words which can vary between final
-ie and -y. Words ending in penultimate
-f- and -s- are governed by a separate
preference for
-ie endings. Six words selected from this group show the
influence of justification on B's preferences. There are seven (+J2)
authoritie spellings in the copy used for the Paviers.[5] B changes all seven (+J1) of these
spellings to final -y but allows the non-preferential form to
stand
once in a justified line. Every provides evidence of B's not
merely accepting a non-preferential form from copy in a justified line but
introducing a non-preferential form against the favored form which stands
in copy. All five (+J2) everie spellings in copy are changed
by
B to every. He carefully retains eight (+J3)
every
spellings found in copy. The one apparently aberrant
change of setting everie in place of copy's
every
occurs in a justified line. B's preference for history is shown
by
the fact that six (+J1) historie, one justified
historye, and two history forms in copy are all
set
as history in his texts. Only two -ie forms can
be
seen in B's texts, and both occur in justified lines. B sets all of the
twenty-eight ladie forms found in copy as lady
and
retains fifteen (+J1) lady forms found in copy. There is one
aberrant change from lady to ladie, and the
unusual
form ladye is introduced by B in place of his preferred
lady spelling in a justified line. B consolidates five (+J2)
mery, one merie, five (+J1)
merrie and
ten merry forms found in copy all under his preferred
spelling
merry. One merry appeared in copy as
mer-|ry divided between two lines. B employs
the
non-preferential form
merie as a part of his means of justifying the line and
avoiding
the breaking of the word between two lines. Various copy spellings of
pretty: prettie, twelve (+J3);
pretie,
three; prety, one; and pretty, three, are all
consolidated by B to his preferential form pretty. The only
other
form set by B is a single example of prettie which is carried
over from copy in a justified line. Almost all of the exceptions to B's
pattern of setting final -y (except after -f- and
-s-) occur, therefore, in justified lines. B is seen to be prone
to
accept non-preferential forms in justified lines and also to introduce
non-preferential forms in place of preferential copy spellings for the
purpose of justification.
Another clearly defined spelling pattern is B's preference for final
-e after penultimate -k-. Again, almost all of
the
exceptions to this rule occur in justified lines. There are three unjustified
and two justified black spellings in copy. B changes all three
unjustified forms to blacke but follows the two
non-preferential
forms which occurred in justified lines. Of the four (+J1)
cheeke forms in copy which agree with B's preference, he
sets
the one justified spelling as cheek against his habit. Only one
of the one unjustified and two justified drink spellings in copy
is retained by B. That one is in a justified line. There are thirty-three
unjustified and one justified speake spellings in copy. B
retains
all thirty-three unjustified preferential
speake forms but sets
speak for
speake
in a justified line. He changes the one unjustified
speak in
copy
to
speake but follows the non-preferential form the one time
it
occurs in a justified line. Of the eleven (+J12)
talke spellings
in copy, B sets all eleven unjustified and one justified
talke.
Eleven of the justified
talke spellings are changed by B to
talk against his preference. In case after case, B uses
non-preferential forms only in justified lines. B's single
thank
spelling is in a justified line. All three
think spellings set by
B
occur in justified lines. The one
took form set by B is in a
justified line. In fact, every single one of the non-preferential
-
k
forms set by B, both the ones reproducing non-preferential -
k
forms found in copy and those introducing that form over -
ke
in copy, occurs in justified material.
The final -l/-ll group of words is strongly
regulated by B's clearly defined pattern. This pattern, however, does not
render these spellings immune from the influence of justification. B
consolidates all of the copy spellings of counsell to his
preferred
-ll form with the exception of two occurrences of
counsaile both in justified lines. The one evil
form
set by B in nine (+J2) occurrences of the word comes in a justified line.
B's one use of fal is in place of his preferred form
fall within a justified line. The only ful in B's
texts
occurs in a justified line. B changes all of the rebel spellings
found in copy to rebell but once changes rebell
to
rebel in a justified line. Justification clearly outranks even the
strongest of B's spelling preferences as an influence on the spellings of his
texts.
For almost every linguistic group observed in the Paviers, the
majority of exceptions to B's observable spelling patterns come in justified
lines. In contrast to B's liking for initial an- spellings of
ancient, one auncient spelling stands in his text
in
a justified line. B's preference for -inde endings is violated
by
two justified blinde to blind changes and the
one
acceptance of a justified find spelling found in copy. Both the
one copy-reproducing unkindnes and the one change from
unkindnesse to unkindnes in contradiction to
B's
preference for -nesse occur in justified lines. The one
-nes form of business which appears in B's
work
stands in a justified line. These statistics clearly show that B's group
spellings were influenced by justification.
The influence of justification on Compositor B's spellings extends
even to the individual words for which he displays the very strongest
preference. Do has always been observed to be the strongest
of
B's characteristic habit spellings. B's copy contains 315 (+J68)
doe spellings. Of these, B changes 303 (+J52) to
do
in accordance with his preference. In all ten plays, only twelve (+J16)
non-characteristic doe forms come through from copy into
B's
texts. It is significant that, although only one in thirty of the unjustified
doe forms comes through from copy, one in four of the
justified
doe forms does. There are only eight apparently aberrant
changes of do to doe in all of the Paviers, and
five
out of the eight are in justified lines. Justified lines witness the majority of
the aberrant do to doe changes and eight times
the
frequency of the doe retention in unjustified lines. The pattern
of B's most
noteable preference is, therefore, influenced by justification.
Four other words show the various workings of the influence of
justification. The general practice of both B and the compositors who set
the copy used for the Paviers was the normal spelling and.
In
nine unjustified and twenty justified lines in copy, the copy form is
&. B changes five (+J16) of these forms to
and
and retains only four (+J4) & forms. From this
evidence, it
appears that B preferred the spelled form but was led to follow
& forms occasionally. It is, therefore, significant to
observe
that the twenty-nine & forms which B introduces in the
place
of copy and are all in justified lines. Clearly, B's dislike of
the
ampersand was a clear-cut matter except when the influence of justification
was brought to bear on B and caused him to set & in his
text.
The statistics for cloak in the Paviers are as follows.
The
first column indicates the copy spelling; the second column, the Pavier
spelling; and the numbers, the frequency of occurrence.
- CLOKE - CLOAKE 1
- CLOAKE - CLOAKE 3 + J1
- CLOAKES - CLOAKES 1
- CLOAKES - CLOKES J1***
What preference B expresses is in favor of the
cloake(
s) form. His switch of
cloakes to
clokes occurs in what is in fact a short line, but the need for
justification can be shown to be the ultimate reason for his adopting the
short form. The copy used for the Pavier contained a long, justified verse
line:
Humph. But cloakes and gownes ere this day many a
one:
2 Henry VI, Q2 (1600), C2v.
Faced with this long verse line in copy, B started early in his line to
prelude the possibility of having to justify and altered both
cloakes to
clokes and
gownes to
gowns as well as introducing & for
and.
His line,
which falls well within his measure is as follows:
Hum. But clokes & gowns ere this day many a
one.
2 Henry VI, Q3 (1619), C2v.
Here, therefore, we see the possibility of justification, or rather, the desire
to avoid long, justified verse lines, influencing the spellings in a short line
which, at first glance, does not appear to have been affected by the process
of justifying. Only when studied in relation to copy does the entire nature
of B's spellings become clear.
From is the standard spelling of this word in both the
copy used for the Paviers and in B's texts. Twice in justified lines,
however, B employs survivals from the elaborate system of abbreviation
used in earlier printing to shorten from. Once he uses the
tilde
to change copy from to frõ, and another
time
he uses the umlaut to change from to frö.
The
need for justification was strong enough, therefore, to lead B to introduce
archaic abbreviations in place of standard spellings.
Finally, B's treatment of we sums up his use of
non-preferential spellings in justified lines. The usual spelling in copy and
in the Paviers is, of course, we. There are, however, twelve
unjustified and fourteen justified wee forms in copy. Of
these,
B sets all of the unjustified and seven of the justified long forms as
we. Wee is retained only in seven justified
lines. In
addition, B introduces fourteen wee forms in place of
preferred
we, all in justified lines.
It requires patience to compile and review the statistical spelling
evidence of the Paviers, but these comprehensive statistics make it possible,
at long last, to provide a broad factual basis for the assertion that
justification was indeed accomplished by the use of variant spellings and
that spellings in justified lines often reflect the need for justification rather
than the compositor's spelling habits.
Two inevitable conclusions which result from a survey of the statistics
need to be emphasized. First, justification was an important compositorial
concern which, in the group of influences at work on the compositor,
ranked ahead of the tendency to set preferential spellings. Second, and a
necessary result of the first conclusion, this study shows the necessity of
taking justification into consideration in compositor studies which are based
on spelling analysis. Compositorial analysis which does not separate
evidence from justified lines is subject to contamination from justified
spellings. Justification was of utmost importance in shaping the patterns of
compositorial spellings.
Notes