University of Virginia Library

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]