University of Virginia Library

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: 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: 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