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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,
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) |
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
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
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.
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