University of Virginia Library

The "1584" Publication of Henry Constable's Diana Augmented
by
Hassell B. Sledd

The first publication of a collection of Henry Constable's sonnets, Diana, The Praises of His Mistres, in Certaine Sweete Sonnets (STC 5637), was entered to John Charlewood in the Stationers' Register for September 22, 1592 (Arber II, 620). The collection was augmented and published in two editions as Diana, or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of H. C. Augmented with Diuers Quatorzains of Honorable and Lerned Personages (STC 5638), presumably between 1594 and 1598. Neither edition of Diana Augmented was entered in the Stationers' Register, but because of the death of Charlewood in 1593, the remarriage of his widow to James Roberts (Arber V, 171), the transfer of some twenty titles from Charlewood to Roberts on the last day of May, 1594 (Arber II, 651-652), and the printing of the augmented editions by Roberts, we can presume that the augmented editions were not printed before 1594. We can also presume that they were not printed after 1598, because rights to Diana passed to William Wood on November 6, 1598 (Arber III, 131).

The earlier edition of Diana Augmented is known in a single copy in the British Museum. The later edition is known in two copies, one in the Bodleian Library and the other in the Huntington Library. On the title page of the later edition "lerned" is changed to "learned". On other pages the editions differ in the positions of signatures, the patterns of ornaments, the spelling, and the use of swash capitals, ligatures, and abbreviations.[1]

Bibliographical catalogues treat both editions as one and indicate that the title pages, now cropped, may once have shown "1584." For example, the Short Title Catalogue reads "1584 (or rather 1594)" and the British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books reads "H. C. Diana . . . [1584] . . . . The date supplied is that found in perfect copies; this copy is cropped. The work was published in 1594." In all probability, "1584" never appeared on the title page of either edition; instead, it first appeared in 1818 on the title page of Samuel Weller Singer's facsimile reprint of Diana Augmented.

For the reprint, Singer used, as far as it would carry him, the single known copy of the earlier or "lerned" edition. He had access to it through his friend Robert Triphook, who bought it on December 14, 1818, at the

sale of James Bindley's library.[2] Singer's reprint agrees with the text of signatures A-E in the spelling of "lerned" on the title page and in sixty-three other occasions of spelling, punctuation, and abbreviation, when the later or "learned" edition differs. The reprint and the "lerned" edition also share an error. On signature E5v, both offer "woudds" in the verse "a mortall shaft still woudds mee in my mourning," where the "learned" edition offers "wounds".

Gathering F was missing from the copy of the "lerned" edition, according to Bindley's Catalogue (p. 36). For the text of this gathering Singer used a copy of the "learned" edition or the Roxburghe Club reprint.[3] Because these and Singer's reprint agree, I am unable to determine which Singer used.

The date had probably been cropped from the title page of each of the known copies before Singer had access to them. The copy of the "lerned" edition is dated in Bindley's Catalogue as 1604 (p. 36). But this date is obviously wrong, for Roberts printed the book, and rights to it passed to Wood in 1598. So wrong a date implies cropping of the title page before the book was catalogued for Bindley's sale, rather than a mistake on the part of the cataloguer. The title page of the Bodleian copy of the "learned" edition had evidently long been cropped, for it had been listed without a date in the 1698 catalogue of the library of Dr. Francis Bernard,[4] and it had been dated by Thomas Warton as both 1596[5] and 1592[6] The title page of the Huntington copy is not genuine[7] and seems to have been missing before the copy came to light in this century. The copy was first mentioned by Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach in a note now inside the cover of a copy of Venus and Adonis (STC 22356) in the Folger Library. In the note Diana Augmented, Venus and Adonis, and four other tracts are described as bound together; all are dated 1595.[8] The date of Diana Augmented seems to have been inferred on the strength of the dates of some of the other tracts.

Because the date had presumably been cropped from the title page of the copy of Diana Augmented used by Singer for most of his reprint, and

because in the other known copies of the book the date had presumably been cropped or the title page itself was missing, it seems reasonable to say that "1584" never appeared on the title page of any copy of the sixteenth-century Diana Augmented, but rather orginated in 1818 in Singer's reprint.

Notes