University of Virginia Library

II

I shall now briefly consider some pages of the other comedies, for which the copy is lost, that were set by Compositors C and D. Since his errors are more obvious, Compositor D's work has been emended more than Compositor C's—even though Compositor C makes more frequent and more serious errors. In the future, editors should examine Compositor C's pages more closely and emend more liberally. Some of the established emendations of Compositor C's work are corrections of his characteristic errors. A simple and obvious change that Compositor C makes is shortening or lengthening a word. A good example is 'hundred psalms' for what should probably be 'hundredth psalm' in line 607 of Wiv.[11] Another example involves upon/on. All recent editors of Err have emended on to upon in line 105, 'We were encountered by a mighty rocke, / Which being violently borne up, / Our helpefull ship was splitted' (104-106).[12] A related emendation is upon us for upon's in 'I'le bring thee to the present businesse / Which now's upon's: without the which, this Story' (Tmp, 239-240).[13] In this example the verse would not have fitted into one line if Compositor C had not contracted either now's or upon's; we know that Compositor C will solve his spacing problems through contractions, and

upon's (because it is more awkward than now's, though it does appear elsewhere in the Folio) is a likely instance.

Knowing that Compositor C is prone to corruptions that involve contractions should help an editor choose between possible emendations. For example, let's alone in 'what doe you mean / To doate thus on such luggage? let's alone / And doe the murther first' (Tmp, 1905) has been emended to let's along by Theobald, let it alone by Hanmer, let't alone by Rann, and let's all on by Wilson; Rann's emendation has been chosen by recent editors of Tmp. Not only is Rann's emendation more economical, it also emends the part that Compositor C is more likely to have corrupted.

When an editor suspects an error of substitution, he should recall that Compositor C tries to carry too much text in his head and is therefore susceptible to having a word or phrase influence other words. For example, a line that Compositor C set, 'To seeke thy helpe by beneficial helpe' (Err, 154), has been emended by changing the first helpe to something else, usually healthe in recent editions.[14] We know that Compositor C's substitutions were often synonyms that need not be orthographically similar; thus, other emendations, like life (Rowe, accepted by Hardin Craig) or hope (Collier), are possible. Another example may be the repetition of worth in 'To be of worth, and worthy estimation' (TGV, 706). Though recent editors have not felt the need to emend the line (partly because worth is repeated frequently throughout this scene and the rest of the play), I think Collier's emendation, wealth, should be given stronger consideration now that we know more about the frequency of Compositor C's substitutions.

A different kind of error of substitution to which Compositor C is prone is correcting apparent corruptions in his copy, like malapropisms. Slender, referring to a marriage proposal, in Wiv says, 'I hope upon familiarity will grow more content' (229). This sentence follows and precedes malapropisms, and I think Theobald was correct in emending content to contempt.[15]

Detailed knowledge of Compositor C may also help us spot likely omissions or interpolations. In MM, 'and have found it' (1828) is the last part of a verse crammed into the top line of G2b (the top half of this column has other signs of crowding). Two recent editors, R. C.

Bald and G. Blakemore Evans, have left this line alone, but I think J. W. Lever is right in asserting that a monosyllable has been dropped.[16] Spacing is not the only possible reason for the omission; the Folio line has ten syllables and would satisfy Compositor C's usual desire for a regular line. Unfortunately, our knowledge of Compositor C's habits does not help in this instance to select an emendation.

When looking for possible corruptions in Compositor D's pages, an editor should recall Compositor D's habit of misreading words and his particular fondness for adding or dropping a final s. A list of some Folio readings in Err and the emendations adopted by past editors coincide strikingly with Compositor D's habitual corruptions: scoure/score (230), God/God's (258), liberties/libertines (268), stranger/stronger (569), wise/wife (812), sister/sister's (833), bud/bed (836), sweet/sweat (1136), on/one (1143), and ships/ship (1218).[17] Seven of these proposed emendations come from the Second Folio and are merely corrections of literals. A similar list can be made for each of the plays Compositor D worked in. Another possible example of Compositor D's most common error is in the line, 'What knowes the Lawes' (MM, 473), which has been variously emended to read 'What know the Laws' (Rowe), 'What knowes the Law' (Dyce), and 'Who knows the Laws' (Wilson). Clearly the third emendation is the least apt, given Compositor D's treatment of final s. Recent editors of MM have kept the Folio reading, but this is another reading that I think should be reconsidered.

An emendation that replaces a word set by Compositor D should be orthographically similar to the Folio reading, if possible. Line 440 of AYL refers to Celia as 'taller' than Rosalind, but the opposite is true elsewhere. Editors have roughly split between shorter and smaller as emendations. If the inconsistency is due to compositorial error, then it is much more likely that Compositor D should have set smaller than shorter. A similar choice of emendations occurs in MM with 'headstrong weeds' (310), often emended as steeds, wills, deeds, or jades. Lever argues, following Bald, that jades "could have been misread in Shakespeare's handwriting."[18] This is exactly the kind of argument that one can make about Compositor D's work, except steeds seems even more apt than jades.

Also in MM, Compositor D is responsible for one of the famous textual cruxes of the First Folio, 'Some rise by sinne, and some by vertue fall / Some run from brakes of Ice, and answere none' (492-493). Numerous emendations have been offered for 'brakes of Ice,' with 'through brakes of Vice' (Rowe) and 'breaks of Ice' (Collier) the two most popular choices.[19] We now know that Compositor D's substituitons rarely involve only the initial letter; his three substitutions of the initial letter are ye to he, you to thou, and Farborough to Tharborough—the last two might even be considered spelling variants. He did not omit the initial letter in any of the words he set from quarto copy. On the other hand, he seems prone to vowel changes, especially when two conjunct vowels are involved; he can either add a vowel, as in bonds to bounds (N5, 1088), or drop one, as in tainted to tanted (P3v, 1421).[20] Thus, 'breaks of Ice' is the emendation that best accounts for the kind of misreading typical of Compositor D.

An insoluble, but interesting, crux set by Compositor D occurs in the passage in AWW, 'Love no god, that would not extend his might onelie, where qualities were level, Queene of Virgins, that would suffer her poor surpris'd without rescue' (V3, 434-437). Theobald's emendation, 'Diana no Queene of Virgins,' has been commonly accepted, and the new information about Compositor D's habits supports the assertion that something has been omitted. We now know that Compositor D's most serious corruptions were omissions. He skips lines or phrases in his quarto copy on four occasions. Though he does not omit a proper name from his quarto copy, he does drop sir twice and Maister once. Unfortunately, we cannot point to an analogous situation in the pages he set from the quartos that could suggest how to emend this passage—or support Theobald's obviously sound choice.

I hope that I have suggested some valuable ways the information in this article can be applied. Some of it should be immediately useful. Knowing that Compositor C, and not Compositor D, is willing to tamper with the text to achieve a smoother line or solve spacing problems and that he is susceptible to frequent memorial errors should define new boundaries within which editors practice the art of emendation. Other parts of the essay may be helpful as a standard for further comparisons with the other Folio compositors. As Dr. Walker discovered when comparing Compositors A and B, significant qualitative distinctions can be, and should be, made among the Folio compositors.

APPENDIX I SUBSTITUTIONS BY COMPOSITOR C

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

(* indicates long lines)
Ado		Quarto	Folio
I4	327*	mine	my
	342*	shill	skill
	351	brings	bringeth
	352*	at least	yet
I4v	388	bothers	brothers
	393*	one	on
	410*	a	of
	431	a	he
	444*	on	upon
	487	sincke	sinkes
I5a	505	Jove	Love
	547*	pleases	pleaseth
I5v	676	my	this
	680*	his single	a single
	694	that	a
	714	her	my
	729*	a	of
16	750*	Countie	Counte
	811*	don	on
	821*	Marg.	Margaret
	824*	truth	truths
	830*	you	thou
	856*	and	an
I6v	909	was	were
	918*	live	liefe
	1000	a	he
K1	1012	Before	'Fore
	1015	Claudio	Leon.
	1017*	say	see
	1026	seek	see
	1039*	gentlewomen	gentlewoman
	1046*	their	the
	1099	propose	purpose
K1v	1148	sheele	she
	1153	antique	anticke
	1169	then	to
	1194	limed	tane
	1256	Bene.	Prin.
K2	1299*	has	hath
	1324	midnight	night
	1372*	those	them
K3	1546*	see	looke
	1619*	pounds	times
	1626*	ha	have
	1650	examination	examine
	1650	these	those
K3v	1679	ah, ha	ha, ha
	1756	spoke	spoken
Ado		Quarto	Folio
K5	2056*	Leonatoes	Leonato
	2085	comforter	comfort
	2147	mine	my
L1	2561	sorts	sort
	2595	Bened.	Benedike
	2605	And	A
	2680*	reverent	reverend
LLL
L1v	2	Navar.	Navarre
	36	pome	pompe
	75	quit	quite
	77*	but that	and that
L2v	231*	welkis vizgerent	Welkins Vicregent
	270*	keepe	keeper
	309*	till	untill
	349*	fitteth	fits
	358*	here is	here's
L3	396*	maculate	immaculate
	426	love	jove
	432*	suffer him to take	let him take
	433	a' must	hee must
	443	that	what
L3v	498	Navar	Navarre
	523	Importuous	Importunes
	525	visage	visag'd
	536	peerlesse	parts
	552	he	shee
	557	if I	as I
	582	unpeeled	unpeopled
L4	626	the one	th'one
	638	repaide	repaie
	639	A	An
	665	will	would
	669	within	in
	672	faire	farther
	677	none	owne
	696*	and you	if you
	702	on	a
	738	did	doe
M1	1370	will	wilt
	1408	Godesse	Codesse
	1409*	a'th'	o'th'
	1419	in	of
	1439	ever	every
	1467	ore-hard	ore-heard
	1479	One	On
M1v	1505	to tune	tuning
	1536	twas	it was
	1566	were	are

                                                                                                                                                                     

Ado		Quarto	Folio
M2	1643	gainst	against
	1712	Let us	Let's
M2v	1795*	wane	wave
	1833*	importunt	importunate
M3	1895	a	on
	1898	yeere	yeeres
	1899	shrowd	shrewd
	1943	Pearle	Pearls
	1971*	stable	stab'd
	1987	over hard	over-heard
	1988	thy	they
M3v	2026	you	your
	2026	two	too
	2041*	speakers	keepers
	2059	even	ever
	2085	her	you
	2122	we	you
MND
N2	239*	dote	dotes
	253	oft	often
	258	his	this
	262	this	his
	291*	gallant	gallantly
	327*	here	there
N3	570	unto	into
	580	not I	nor I
	589	use	doe
N3v	622	Ile	I
	665	our	your
	671	Spinders	Spinners
	700	we can	can you
	701	interchained	interchanged
N5v	1122	do	doth
	1148	come	comes
	1176	were men	are men
	1201	least	lest
	1209	thy	that
	1237	an	a
O1	1596	of	off
	1611	Fairy	Faire
Ado		Quarto	Folio
O2	1776*	not	no
	1808	airy	aire
	1829	or	our
	1833	Philostrate	Egeus
O2v	1920*	this	his
	1957	Flute	Snout
	1976	o sweet,	thou sweet
		o lovely	and lovely
	1994	now againe	up in thee
O3v	2210	this	these
MV
O4vb	201*	meane	smal
	216	reasoning	reason
	217-18*	who . . . who	whom . . . whom
P1v	864	there	their
	924	Howe	Hoa
	951	mo	more
	960	gentleman	gentlemen
	963	Whose	Who's
P4	1496	me	my
	1505	something	nothing
	1518	Lords	Lord
	1543*	have	gave
P4v	1687	lent	lends
P5	1757	two	too
	1774	th'indevor	the indeavor
	1775	cosin	cosins
	1817*	be a	be of
	1833	in as	e'ne as
	1843*	there's	there is
P5va	1886	in	Is
P6vb	2205	who	whom
	2241	of	off
	2251	you	thee
Q1	2297	Godsake	Gods sake
	2372	gainst	against
Q1v	2446	is	it
	2500	Terobus	Erobus
Q2v	2657	that	the
	2657	mine	my
	2676	his	thy

SUBSTITUTIONS BY COMPOSITOR D

                                                                                                                                                           

Ado		Quarto	Folio
I3v	127	yours	your
	220	spoke	speake
K2v	1406	statutes	Statues
	1519	it	in
K5v	2248*	said	saies
	2255*	theirs	there's
	2267	one	on
K6	2346	thou	thou thou
K6v	2453*	names	name
	2496*	monument	monuments
	2496*	bell rings	Bels ring
	2531	dead	dombe
	2542	Heavily,	Heavenly,
		heavily	heavenly
LLL
L2	141*	can	shall
	141*	possible	possibly
	164	shall speake	shall breake
	169	other	others
	177	on	One
	196*	Farborough	Tharborough
L4v	748*	where	whence
	749	you	out
	782*	your	the
	783*	eylids	eie
	788*	thinbellies	thinbellie
	826*	The	Thy
L5	897*	honour	honours
	915*	threefarthing	threefarthings
	980	Ore	On
L6	1142	toothen	to the
	1154*	as the	as a
	1183*	indistreell	indiscreet
L6v	1319*	before	being
MND
N4	805	you	yet
	809	swound	sound
	840*	self	selves
	855*	tell them	tell him
	945	with	and
N5	1041	Minnock	Mimmick
	1081*	murdered	murderer
	1083	looke	looks
	1088*	bonds	bounds
	1092	have lookt	a lookt
N6	1287	hee'l seeme	Sir, seeme
N6v	1382	Not	Nor
	1387	willfully	willingly
	1415	apply	imply
	1483	sometimes	sometime
MV		Quarto	Folio
O5	256	shall	should
	267*	Scottish Lorde	other Lord
	300*	I pray God graunt them	I wish them
O5v	374	won	worne
	390	ye	he
	450	can	should
	461	for barraine	of barraine
	464	penaltie	penalties
O6	507*	The	This
	509	terms	teames
P1	784*	something	somewhat
	836*	thou shalt	thou shall
P1va	902	seale	steale
P2	1061	came	comes
	1095	Slumber	Slubber
P2v	1120	you	thou
	1160	chaft	chaffe
	1224*	gossip	gossips
P3	1262	cursie	curtsie
	1269*	his reason	the reason
	1294*	of her	ofster
	1303*	whats	how much is
P3v	1375	doe	doth
	1412	eye	eyes
	1421	tainted	tanted
	1439	maketh	makes

APPENDIX II OMISSIONS BY COMPOSITOR C

                                                                                     

			Quarto	Folio
Ado	I4	300	with hir, and with her father/and thou shalt have her: wast not	with her: wast not
		323	strange news	news
		328*	thus much	thus
	I4v	365*	take true root	take root
		399*	whipt me	whipt
		464*	say, father, as	say, as
		471*	an account	account
	I5v	620*	thinke I tolde	thinke, tolde
		621*	good will	will
		623*	him up	him
		651*	her terminations	terminations
	I6	756	my minde	minde
		864*	not I for	not for
	K1	1019*	most Christianlike	Christianlike
	K1v	1239*	morrow, or in the shape . . . sublet: unlesse	morrow: unlesse
	K2	1262*	conclude, conclude	conclude
		1365*	and to talke	and talke
	K3	1642	as it may	as may
	K3v	1676	do, not knowing what to do!	do!
	K4v	1954	denie it	denie
		1978*	Count, Count Comfect	Count, Comfect
		1993*	I leave	leave
		2013*	God? Both. Yea sir we hope./Kem. Write downe, . . . villaines: maisters	God: maisters
	K5	2071*	any is in	any in
	L1	2587-2588	helpe./Heere . . . Claudio.//Enter	helpe./Enter
		2620	died defilde	died
		2639*	that you	you
		2640*	that you	you
		2641	no such matter	no matter
		2665*	for what I	for I
LLL	L1v	31	bancrout quite	bankerout
	L2v	309*	sit thee	sit
		356	do call	call
	L3	432*	to take	take
		466*	too silent	silent
	L4	626	half of, of	half, of
		713	O you	you
	M3	1933	were not so	were
		1945	not wish	wish
		1970	mirth is	mirth
	M3v	2108*	do but vouchsafe	vouchsafe but
		2127*	you yourselves	yourselves

                                 

			Quarto	Folio
MND	O1	1537*	some some	some
	O1v	1719	Dem. Are you sure/that we are awake? It seemes	Dem. It seemes
		1732*	I have had	I had
	O2	1777	thing right	thing
	O2v	1944	his trusty Thisbies	his Thisbies
		1987	enter now	enter
MV	O4vb	164	doe me now more	doe more
		211*	then to be	then be
		216	the fashion	fashion
	P1v	977	many men	men
	P4v	1676*	but see	see
	P5	1809	my my	my
	P6vb	2244	it but so	it so
	Q1v	2463	I pray	pray
		2495	the time	time
	Q2v	2685	pardon me	pardon

OMISSIONS BY COMPOSITOR D

                         

Ado	I3v	103	doubt, sir that	doubt that
LLL	L2	118*	little gate	gate
	L4v	779	Maister, will	will
		858+9	lenvoy./ I will example . . . adding foure./ The foxe	lenvoy./ The Foxe
	L5	913	O what	What
	L6	1116	And I	I
		1189*	tel me	tell
	L6v	1261*	not, loves thee not	not,
		1306*	royall hand	hand
MND	N6v	1384	away./Her. I am amaz'd . . . say. Exeunt	away
MV	O5	312	praise. Howe nowe what newes?	praise.
	O6	591*	is but a	is a
	O6v	619	Lancelot sir	Lancelot

APPENDIX III INTERPOLATIONS BY COMPOSITOR C

                                 

			Quarto	Folio
Ado	I4v	379	I make	I will make
	I5v	646*	that	and that
	I6	814*	love	a love
	K1	1034	unworthy	unworthy to have
	K1v	1241*	appeare	to appeare
	K4v	1938	sweare	sweare by it
	K5	2043	by masse	by th'masse
LLL	L3v	512	omitted	Prin.
	M1v	1564*	show	will show
	M3	1903*	Grandam	a Grandam
MND	N2	277*	grow to	grow on to
		344*	roare	roare you
	N3	535	West	the West
	O1	1586	Be as thou	Be thou as thou
MV	P4	1557	is, so	is so, so
	P5a	1893	wife	a wife

INTERPOLATIONS BY COMPOSITOR D

                     

			Quarto	Folio
LLL	L2	118	Clymbe	That were to clymbe
	L4v	800*	and	and/and
	L5	907*	French-	a French-
		988*	againe	then again
	L6	1235*	whom	in whom
MND	N4	759	shewes	her shewes
	N6	1247	your words	your passionate words
MV	O5	243*	rather be	rather to be
	O5v	480	pleaseth	it pleaseth
	P1	738	sute	a sute