II.
Armed with this warning against over-simplification and, at the same
time, strengthened by the assurance that B's hand is in evidence throughout
the Paviers, I collated all of the Pavier texts against their copy and
compiled word counts for over 500 individual words. This mass of
statistical evidence was then analyzed in terms of orthographic groups
which display significant spelling features. Although I do not wish to
reproduce these tedious reports of observed statistics, I propose to give here
a list of the groups of words I examined and one sample report in order to
make the nature of my study known to those who may be interested in
consulting it.[13]
The groups of spellings considered were as follows:
- 1. Internal -A-/-AU-
- 2. Initial DE-/DI-
- 3. Internal Consonants: -D-/-DD-, -R-/-RR-, -T-/-TT-
- 4. Final -D/-DE
- 5. Initial E-/I- before -N-/-M-
- 6. Internal -EA-/-EE-
- 7. Internal -EA-/-EI-
- 8. Internal -EE-/-IE-
- 9. Final -E/-EE
- 10. Final -F/-FE
- 11. Final -G
- 12. Internal -I-/-Y-
- 13. Final -IE/-Y
- 14. Final -K/-CK/-QUE
- 15. Final -L
- 16. Final -M
- 17. Final -N
- 18. Internal -O-/-OO-
- 19. Final -P
- 20. Final -R
- 21. Final -S/-SSE
- 22. Final -T
- 23. Final -W
- 24. Final -X
- 25. Reflexive Pronouns
One of the largest of these groups of words is that involving
-ie/-y endings. Before one can attempt to generalize about the
eighty-eight
words in this group for which there is sufficient evidence to permit valid
statistical conclusions, they must be examined in sub-groups. First, those
words ending in a vowel plus
-ie or
-y will be
considered. After that, the words ending in a consonant plus
-ie/-y will be examined in two groups defined by penultimate
consonants.
All of the following words display B's extremely strong preference
for final -y in conjunction with a preceding vowel:
away |
enjoy |
pay |
betray |
joy |
pray |
bewray |
lay |
say |
boy |
may |
stay |
day |
nay |
way |
Without exception, B changes
-ie and
-ye forms
of
these words to
-y and retains all of the
-y forms
found in copy.
The following words ending in -ie/-y after penultimate
letters b, c, d, g,
k, l, m, n,
p,
r, t, and v regularly display B's
preference for -y endings:
b: rugby |
willingly |
t: authority |
c: fancy |
m: enemy |
beauty |
mercy |
n: any |
charity |
d: already |
company |
city |
bloody |
deny |
cruelty |
body |
honey |
duty |
lady |
many |
fifty |
needy |
money |
forty |
ready |
villany |
guilty |
speedy |
p: happy |
honesty |
g: clergy |
r: beggery |
liberty |
k: lucky |
carry |
loyalty |
l: daily |
contrary |
majesty |
dearly |
country |
mighty |
early |
cry |
nativity |
fly |
dowry |
necessity |
heartily |
every |
petty |
heavenly |
fury |
pity |
holy |
glory |
pretty |
kingly |
history |
quality |
only |
marry |
safety |
presently |
merry |
thirty |
princely |
misery |
twenty |
quickly |
sorry |
university |
reply |
tarry |
v: envy |
suddenly |
very |
heavy |
truly |
victory |
|
Preferring final
-y for all of the words on this list, B
regularly
changes the bulk of the
-ie forms to
-y and
almost
invariably reproduces the
-y forms found in copy. A small
and
relatively regular percentage of
-ie spellings slip through from
copy into B's texts, but these carry-overs always occur in conjunction with
B's definite preference for
-y.
There are two consonants which do not fall into the above group and,
in fact, display a distinctly contrasting pattern. These consonants are
f and s. Defie stands in B's copy
six
times and all of these six occurrences are reproduced by B. B's copy spells
satisfy with final -ie all five times it occurs. B
follows copy for all of these forms. Signifie is so spelled in
six
(+J1) occurrences in copy. All of these forms are reproduced by B. All
four (+J1) occurrences of busy are spelled
busie
both in copy and in B's texts. B reproduces the seven (+J1)
curtesie spellings in copy, changes three (+J1)
curtesie forms to courtesie, and reproduces
three
courtesie spellings. All seven easie spellings in
copy
are retained in B's texts. Heresie is reproduced from copy the
three times the word occurs. One heresie form is set in place
of copy's herisie. The seven occurrences of
jealousy are spelled with final -ie both in copy
and
in B's texts. Lowsie is reproduced from copy three times and
once changed to lowsy.
All of the words recorded for f and s plus
-ie/-y display an uncanny pattern of strongly favoring final
-ie in both copy and B's texts. It is likely that the anomalous
-fie/-sie endings result from the use of the fi
and
long-s/i ligatures. Since all of the Pavier copy produced by
various printers agrees with B's use of -fie/-sie in spite of the
general -ie/-y treatment, the fi and
si
ligatures were apparently used with some consistency in order to make the
supply of plain f's and s's in the case last as
long
as possible. The unanimity of the printers in following this procedure makes
it appear to be a general convention for stretching the supply of type.
B displays, therefore, a special tolerance for final -ie
after
-f- and -s-. It is important to stress the word
tolerance because this special feature of B's treatment of final
-ie/-y cannot be termed a preference. Without being able to
observe B's reaction to -fy and -sy in copy, we
cannot equate his use of -fie/-sie with his demonstrable
general
preference for final -y as evidenced by the majority of the
evidence given above. Indeed, the only change in that last group of
-f- and -s- is that of one of the four
lowsie forms to lowsy. Taken by itself, this
shred
of evidence points to the fact that B's preferential spelling was final
-y but that his tolerance for ligatures with -ie
was
surprisingly strong. It must also be pointed out that B's tolerance for
-fie and -sie is not simply a tendency to give
in to
copy spellings when they are weighted against his
preferences
as were the
-fie and
-sie copy spellings against
his
general preference for
-y. In the group which displays B's
preference for final
-y, many individual words had large
proportions of
-ie endings in copy but were consistently set
by
B with final
-y.
Happy was found in copy
seventeen
(+J1) to five in favor of
-ie but becomes twenty-two (+J1)
happy in B's texts.
Victory,
guilty,
nativity, and
thirty were all uniformly spelled
with
final
-ie in copy but with final
-y in B's
texts.
To summarize B's spelling patterns for words ending in
-ie/-y, B consistently prefers final -y after
preceding
vowels and consonants with the exception of f and
s.
Although his preference for final -y involves both the
retention
of almost all -y endings and the introduction of
-y
endings for the vast majority of -ie forms in his copy, a
limited
percentage of -ie forms is carried over from copy into B's
texts.
These few -ie forms serve as an indication of copy spellings.
For the only exceptions to this general rule, -fie and
-sie, B displays an almost absolute tolerance for the
-ie endings which are consistently found in copy.
An examination of compositor B's group spellings has revealed both
the dangers of and benefits to be derived from the use of analogy in the
analysis of compositorial spellings. Although compositor identification in
the Folio has generally been limited to the use of variant spellings of
individual words, other compositor studies have employed classes of words
such as that formed by all words with -ie/-y endings. Since
investigators have employed these word classes in compositor identification,
it is of interest to examine the nature and extent of analogy in the overall
spelling pattern of a compositor.
There are several large groups of words which B treats in a unified
manner. His consistent use of final -e after penultimate
-f- is of little significance because the vast majority of copy
spellings are also -fe. B's consistent preference for
-esse forms of words varying between -es and
-esse is an individual habit which extends to all of the similar
words recorded in the Paviers. From the evidence of the Pavier spellings,
a reasonably safe projection can be made from the uniformity of B's
preference for -esse. It is, however, not demonstrable that the
very next word examined will not for some special reason depart from the
pattern and display the opposite tendency. The discovery of B's clearly
defined preference for deere might lead one to expect that B
would also prefer the yeere spelling. In fact, however, B's
preference for yeare is equally strong as his use of
deere. Word classes cannot, therefore,
be formed by the use of simple analogy.
Although word classes cannot be automatically formed of analogical
words, Compositor B's spellings are far from being patternless. Consistent
patterns can in fact be observed for groups of similar words.
The key to the problem is that the word groups can be formed only after an
examination of the individual words. For example, the real pattern of B's
treatment of final
-ie/-y becomes clear only after considering
the
individual words. Since the raw statistics indicate that B obviously prefers
final
-y for all but a handful of words, one's first reaction is
to
consider B's pattern a general preference for final-
y with the
tendency to accept a few aberrant
-ie endings found in copy.
These words might, therefore, be designated exceptions to the general rule
and nothing more. When the individual words are analyzed, however, the
so-called "exceptions" to the one rule are seen to behave according to a
strict rule of their own. All of the words which display B's tolerance for
final
-ie have penultimate
-f- or
-s- and
are probably governed by the
fi and
si
ligatures. The
exceptions to the hypothetical blanket rule are in fact
governed by a separate, clearly defined, rule of their own. Only by
reasoning from an examination of the individual words is it possible to
define accurately the limits of B's pattern.
There are many similar situations which show the importance of
building up word classes of a more limited sort. Internal
-ai-/-ay- spellings appear to be mixed until it is observed that
B's spellings split into an -ayle group and a more general
-ai- group. In this case, the subgroup displaying
-ay-
is formed by words having analogous endings. The other group is not
governed by any common feature other than the internal -ai-.
Internal -r-/-rr- variation, however, falls into two groups,
both
of which are composed of analogous words.
In summary, therefore, Compositor B's spelling patterns indicate that
analogy often governed his treatment of various spellings. At the same time,
however, untested analogy cannot be employed to define linguistic units for
compositor study. The exact nature and extent of these analogous groups
must be determined only as a result of the study of separate words.
Although analogy must be employed with extreme caution, one
important factor, aberration, should not be permitted to interfere with the
careful formation of word groups and classes. The Pavier statistics confirm
a widely held hypothesis that for some unknown reason a given compositor
will on rare occasions contradict even his strongest habit. The point here is
that these aberrations should not be allowed to obscure the valid evidence
of spelling patterns.
In the examination of do, go, and
here, for example, B was seen to go against his strong
do habit and set doe three times in the course
of the
Paviers in instances when he was affected neither by the need for
justification nor by a copy doe spelling. These three
aberrations
in
the course of ten plays and over 600 occurrences of the word must remain
unexplained and be written off as human variability.
To take another example, a word first analyzed in the Paviers, the
following statistics represent the word count for only. The
first
column represents copy spellings and the second the spelling of those words
in the Paviers.
- ONLIE — ONELY 1
- ONLY — ONELY 12
- ONELY — ONELY 33+J2
- ONELY — ONLY 1
B's unique aberration in setting
only for
onely
does
not have any force against the formulation of the general rule that B's
preferential spelling is clearly
onely.
Although the existence of these aberrations should not be allowed to
obscure clearly observable general patterns, the fact that single aberrant
spellings occur calls for caution in placing weight on any one individual
spelling. To paraphrase Fredson Bowers commenting on aberration in the
printing process, the phenomenon of an individual spelling is narrow
enough "to introduce the possibility that a recognized . . . [spelling
preference] is not being revealed but instead that we are examining only an
aberration — some human variation or failure that must be regarded
as
producing a sport."[14]