16. madam
Alice Walker suggested that madam is a characteristic
B
spelling whereas madame is characteristic of Compositor A.
Disregarding the
variation of
-d-/-dd- and concentrating on
-m/-me,
the evidence of the Paviers is somewhat mixed. B's copy is slanted in favor
of
-m (fifty-two +J7) over
-me (twenty-seven
+J5).
Of the twenty-seven (+J5)
-me forms, B changes eleven
(+J2)
to
-m and retains sixteen (+J3). On the other hand, a small
proportion, seven (+J1) of fifty-two (+J7),
-m copy spellings
are changed in the opposite direction to
-me. B's general
preference is indeed for
-m, but there are a number of
aberrant
changes of
-m to
-me.
