III.
The examination of the Pavier spellings has also produced valuable
statistics on many individual words of interest. Spellings which have been
proposed by previous investigators as characteristic B spellings are here
reviewed in the light of the information provided by the statistics covering
B's work in the Paviers. All of the words that have been proposed by
Satchell, Willoughby, Cauthen,[15] and
Walker[16] as aids in identifying B's
work have been observed in the Paviers. None of these investigators
considered B's habit spellings in direct relation to copy, and all four of
them were working before Hinman's isolation of Compositor E. When
reference is make to these spelling analyses,
therefore, it must be remembered that E spellings can have contaminated
statistics for B. Hinman has commented briefly on the relation of spelling
habits to copy.
[17] Several other words
are included in this section although they are not identifying features for the
recognition of B's presence in a given text. These words have been chosen
for their special value in indicating other features of B's total spelling
pattern and new ways in which spellings can reveal evidence about the
compositor's treatment of his copy.
1. been
As a part of his attempt to demonstrate that all of Folio
Lear was set by B, Cauthen presented the following table as
evidence that B's preferential spelling was bin.
A Spellings
|
B Spellings
|
Lear Spellings
|
beene (13) |
beene (4) |
beene (8) |
bene (3) |
bene (6) |
bene (1) |
bin (3) |
bin (24) |
bin (19) |
When viewed in relation to copy, however, B's treatment of
been cannot be defined in terms of a single preferential form.
These statistics show that B had no single preferential spelling of
been. In fact, he actively employed, that is followed from
copy
and introduced against copy, three forms:
bin,
bene,
and
beene. Although B does not have a single positive
preference, he consistently rejects the
been and
byn
spellings which stand in copy. In the case of each of his acceptable
spellings, B adopts about half the number of any given form found in copy.
Although B's tolerance of
bin forms found in copy is as high
as
that toward
bene and
beene, he introduces
bin least frequently in replacing other forms. Between
bene and
beene, B apparently prefers
bene, but the evidence is not strong. All in all,
been
is of little use in penetrating B's texts to his copy. The word serves,
however, to show the possibility of a compositor's having several operative
forms in his treatment of a given word, that is, various forms which he will
both accept, reject, and introduce in place of others found in copy.
2. blood (bloody)
Compositor B displays a marked preference for -oo-
forms of blood and bloody. Of the 103 (+J4)
-ou- forms in copy, B changes sixty-three (+J4) to
-oo-. At the same time, he retains sixty-one (+J5) of the
sixty-six (+J5) -oo- spellings found in copy. It is interesting
to
note that in spite of his clear-cut preference for -oo-,
Compositor B does allow four -ou- spellings in ten to come
through into his texts. In all ten plays, there are only five abberant changes
of -oo- to -ou- or about one in thirteen
occurrences
of the word.
3. brief
Cauthen's statistics suggest that B has a two to one preference for
briefe over breefe. In the Paviers, only one
justified
-ee- form occurs in copy and this is followed by B. Of the
twenty-one (+J3) -ie- forms in copy, B changes five to
-ee- and retains sixteen (+J3) as -ie-. From this
evidence, it would appear that any preference which these statistics point
toward is for -ee- over -ie-. To complete the
picture,
it would be necessary to be able to observe B's treatment of several
-ee- forms when found in copy.
4. choose
Alice Walker has suggested that B displays a preference for
choose in contrast to A's chuse. In the limited
evidence provided by the Paviers, B changes three of the five
chuse forms in copy to choose. Of the three
choose forms in copy, B retains two but sets one as
chuse. Walker's suggestion that B favored
choose
is confirmed by the evidence in the Paviers.
5. cousin
Taking the -o-/-ou- variation as the operative feature,
the
evidence provided by the Paviers fails to confirm Willoughby's and
Walker's suggestion that B preferred -o- forms over
-ou- spellings. Of the nine (+J1) -ou- spellings
in
copy, B retains eight and changes only one (+J1). Of the eleven (+J3)
-o- spellings in copy, B retains ten (+J3) and changes only
one.
6. dear
The variation of -ea-/-ee- is the operative feature in
dear. Of the sixty (+J12) -ea- forms found in
copy,
B changes twenty-three (+J6) to -ee-. He retains all
thirty-seven
(+J7) -ee- forms in copy. These statistics point clearly to his
preference for deere.
7. devil
Compositor B expresses a strong preference for the di-
form of devil. Of the eighteen (+J7) de- forms
in
copy, B changes seventeen (+J6) to di-. Only one (+J1)
non-preferential de- spelling slips through from copy into B's
text. All twenty-seven (+J9) di- forms in copy are retained
by
B.
8. forfeit
Forfeit provides another example, like
been,
of a situation where multiple alternative spellings
[forfait(e), forfet, and
forfeit(e)] were available to B. In this instance,
he
displays a double preference for forfet and
forfeit(e) and completely rejects the third
alternative.
At the same time, he fails to display any single clear-cut preference for
either of the two forms which he does use.
9. grant
Walker's suggestion that B preferred the grant form is
strongly confirmed by the Pavier spellings. He changes every one of the
eight (+J1) copy graunt spellings to grant and
retains all twelve (+J2) copy grant forms.
10. grief
Walker included greefe in her list of B's preferred
spellings. Of the thirty-eight (+J5) griefe spellings in copy,
B
changes seventeen (+J1) to greefe. Both greefe
forms in copy are retained. The greefe preference is
confirmed.
11. heart
B displays a marked preference for the -ea- form of
heart. Of the ninety-two (+J13) hart forms in
copy,
B changes seventy-three (+J6) to -ea-. He retains 111 (+J21)
of the 112 (+J24) -ea- forms found in copy. There is only
one
(+J3) anomalous change of -ea- to -a-. B's
-ea- preference is clearly indicated.
12. heaven
Alice Walker observed that B preferred uncapitalized
heaven up until Macbeth in the Folio. In the
Paviers, B changes eight of the nine capitalized Heaven forms
to lower case and reproduces thirty-six (+J2) uncapitalized forms found in
copy.
13. honey
Alice Walker first observed B's preference for the hony
spelling of this word. He changes all three honey spellings in
copy to hony and reproduces the four short forms which stand
in his copy. There is one anomalous change of hony to
honny.
14. hour
Cauthen and Walker both indicate that B's preferred spelling was
houre. Of the thirteen (+J2) -ow- spellings of
hour in copy, B changes eleven (+J2) to -ou-.
One
hower and one houre-glasse spellings are
reproduced
by B from his copy. He retains all thirty-four (+J4) -ou-
forms
found in copy. The Pavier evidence indicates that B's preference for
-ou- was quite strong.
15. "lushious"
The one occurrence of lushious in both copy and Pavier
texts is included in this discussion because Alice Walker put great weight
upon the coincidence of the lushious spelling in Q1 and Folio
Othello. She used this coincidence as evidence that Folio
Othello was derived from a marked copy of Q1 (1622). "It
is
ridiculous to suppose that anomalies like 'timerous' (I.i.76), 'lushious'
(I.iii.346) and 'pudled' (III.iv.144) passed from a fair copy, via a prompt
book, to a manuscript prepared by a book-keeper with (at best) only half an
eye on the prompt-book, and so into Okes's quarto, thereby representing a
common legacy in the quarto and Folio from some common
ancestor."[18] If Miss Walker had
checked the Concordance, she would have found two recorded uses of
luscious, in the Othello passage in question
(I.iii.354
— — Globe numbering) and in A Midsummer Night's
Dream (II.i.251). Both Midsummer Q1
(1600) and the Pavier Q2 (1619) contain the lushious spelling
(C2v in both Qq). Far from being anomalous, the
lushious
form is common to the compositors of Q1 Midsummer, Q1
Othello, and Jaggard's B. It is interesting to note that the
Midsummer lushious is changed to luscious on
N3v in the Folio. Hinman assigns this page to Compositor
C.[19] The point of this example is that
any
common spelling, however "anomalous" it may appear, must be used with
extreme caution in attempting to demonstrate direct derivation of one text
from another.
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.
17. mistress
Five variant spellings of mistress are found in the copy
used for the Paviers: mistres (eight +J1),
mistris
(twenty-two +J10), mistresse (forty-seven +J11),
mistrisse (one +J1), and misteris (thirty-five
+J5).
Of these five spellings, B prefers mistris and
mistresse and rejects the other three. Although Alice Walker
assigned mistresse to A and mistris to B as
characteristic spellings, B's treatment of the word in the Paviers indicates
that he employed both forms. On the surface, simple numerical superiority
does favor the -is form, but this is a result of the numerical
superiority of -is forms in copy.
18. power
Cauthen observed that B's texts contained both power
(18)
and powre (7).[20] In the
Paviers, however, B changes the two powre forms in copy
to
power and retains all twenty-six of the power
spellings which stand in his copy, thus indicating a preference for
power.
19. prithee
Alice Walker noted B's constant use of the spelling
prethee in the early sections of the Folio. In the Paviers, B
normalized a total of twenty-six (+J6) occurrences of ten different spellings
of prithee all to his preferential prethee. He
follows
one copy prithee, sets one justified copy prithe
as
prithee, and follows one copy prethe. B's habit
in
the Paviers coincides, therefore, with Walker's observation of his treatment
of prithee in the early parts of the Folio.
20. proud
The Paviers confirm Walker's assignment of proud as
B's
preferential form. B changes the one copy prowd and one
(+J1)
proude to proud and retains twelve occurrences
of
the latter form from copy.
21. scarce
The evidence supplied by the Paviers confirms the observation that
B had a strong preference for the -se form of
scarce.
He changes all eighteen (+J2) -ce forms in copy to
-se and retains all five -se forms which stand
in
copy.
22. traitor
Willoughby and Walker both stress B's preference for
traitor over traytor, and the Paviers confirm
this
preference. Of the twenty-five (+J4) traytor forms in copy,
B
changes twenty-five (+J1) to traitor. All thirty-five (+J3)
-i- forms in copy are retained by B. The only one (+J1)
traytor form in B's texts is derived from copy.
23. vile
Cauthen assigned the vile spelling to Compositor A and
vilde to B. B changes all five vild spellings in
copy
to vilde and one copy vilde to
vile. He
reproduces the two (+J1) other vilde spellings found in
copy.
24. wee'l (etc.)
Alice Walker suggested that B had a distinctive preference for
wee'l (etc.) spellings as opposed to wee'le
(etc.).
The following discussion breaks these forms down by person.
The various compositors who set the texts used for Pavier copy and
Compositor B display a surprising unanimity on the spelling of
I'll. There are 124 (+J13) instances of ile in
both
copy and Pavier texts. One aberrant yle form found in copy
is
changed to ile. B's one deviation from the standard form
occurs
in a justified line in which he sets I'le for
Ile.
He'll, she'll, we'll, and
you'll occur in sufficient numbers to demonstrate B's strong
preferences for final 'l forms of these words. Several variant
factors are involved in these words. The use of the apostrophe, the ending
(-l or -le) and the doubling (in the case of
he'll, she'll and we'll) of the first
e are all separate alternatives operative for these words. B's
uniform preferences are for the doubling of the initial e, the
use
of the apostrophe, and the omission of the final -e.
Of the eighteen (+J2) times B encounters heele in
copy,
he changes eighteen (+J1) of these forms to his preferential
hee'l. In the one justified instance, B changes
heele
to heel. In the two instances in which he encountered
hee'le both are changed to hee'l. The one
contraction introduced by B changes he will to
hee'l. One aberrant hele in B's copy comes
through
as an unusual heele in his text.
Of the five sheele forms in copy, B changes four to
shee'l and sets one as shee'll. He changes all
four
copy shee'le spellings to his preferential
shee'l. The one copy
shee'l is reproduced by
B. Of
the two
sheel forms in copy, B changes one to
shee'l and carries the other over to his text.
We'll is a more complex word. B displays a preference
for wee'l but is subject to the influence of copy and more
prone
to deviate from his strict preference. B changes twenty-nine (+J3)
weele forms to wee'l. At the same time, he
changes
two justified weele forms to wee'll, fourteen
(+J2)
weele forms to weel, three weele
forms
to weell, one justified weele form to
weel and retains eight (+J3) weele forms found
in
copy. If the three wele spellings in copy, B changes one to
his
apparent preference wee'l but the other two to
weele. The one we'le form is changed to his
preferred wee'l as are the eight (+J1) occurrences of
wee'le. The two wee'l forms are reproduced
from
copy. Of the two (+J1) weel spellings in copy, one (+J1) is
changed to B's preferential wee'l and one is retained. Both
the
one weell and the one we wil
which are contracted by B become weel.
Compositor B displays a strong preference for you'l by
changing twenty (+J3) youle spellings to this form. Only
twice
does he reproduce youle from copy and in one unusual
instance
sets youle in place of his preferred you'l. One
other
you'l in copy is retained, and the two you'le
forms
are shortened to you'l.
With the exception of the Ile which is uniformly spelled
thusly, Compositor B displays a consistent spelling preference in favor of
hee'l, wee'l, and you'l. The only
variation comes in his tendency to depart occasionally from his strict habit
with respect to wee'l.
One additional word can be considered with this group. B's treatment
of contracted he is is as follows. Twice he sets
hee's
for copy he is. Of the eleven (+J4) hees in
copy,
B sets six (+J4) as hee's and five as he's. The
one
he's in copy is changed to hee's. Of the
seventeen
(+J3) hee's spellings in copy, B follows copy seventeen
(+J2)
times and changes one hee's to hee is in a
justified
line where these words stand at the very end of the line. B's preference is
clearly for the hee's spelling.
25. widow
The Pavier evidence confirms Alice Walker's suggestion that B's
preference is for widdow. Of the seven (+J1)
-d-
forms in copy, B changes three to -dd-. He retains eight
(+J2)
of the ten (+J2) -dd- forms found in copy. In addition, B
drops
the final -e found on one form in copy.
26. year
B's preference is clearly for the yeare spelling. He
changes all seven (+J3) -ee- spellings in copy to
-ea- and preserves twenty (+J4) of the twenty-one (+J4)
-ea- forms found in copy.
27. young
Alice Walker assigns the yong spellings to B and
young to A. The evidence in the Paviers shows that B's
treatment of young does not display a marked preference for
either form. Of the thirty-six (+J18) -ou- spellings in copy,
B
changes eight (+J6) to -o-. On the other hand, he changes
eleven (+J6) of the twenty-eight (+J8) -o- spellings to
-ou-. The number of changes of -o- to
-ou- has a slight numerical superiority over -ou-
to
-o-, but no clear-cut habit can be observed.
It is worth noting the extent to which previous investigators dealing
with Compositor B in the Folio and working without the ability to
distinguish E from B as well as without reference to copy have determined
B's preferential spellings as they are revealed in the Paviers. Four of the
five test words proposed by Willoughby as means of identifying B are in
fact strong B preferences.[21]
Twenty-one of the forms proposed by Alice Walker as characteristic B
spellings have been studied in the Paviers, and seventeen of the twenty-one
are strong preferential spellings there. Two conclusions can be drawn from
these results. First, the limited amount of text set by E and the closeness of
his overall spelling pattern to that of B have not obscured B's spellings
from previous investigators. Second, the fact that seventeen of B's Folio
habits are confirmed in the Paviers indicates the extent to which set habits
remained fixed. Although it will be necessary for
later investigations to analyze B's Folio spellings fully, the preliminary
indications are that the Paviers give an excellent idea of B's spellings. This
is not to say, however, that any one individual B spelling as observed in the
Paviers can be assumed to be his fixed preferential spelling. The general
texture of B's spellings in the Paviers, however, should be reflected in his
work in the Folio.
It is also important to note that the various words here discussed
display all of the various logical possibilities for a compositor's treatment
of variant spellings. B is seen to display strong preferences for one, two,
and even three variant spellings of given words and can display indifference
which appears neither to be influenced by a weak preference nor to depend
on copy forms.