University of Virginia Library

The Printer's Copy for the 1785 Variorum Shakespeare
by
William C. Woodson

In Volume 28 of Studies in Bibliography I concluded, primarily from the internal evidence of Macbeth, that the 1785 Variorum edition of Shakespeare was not simply a reprint of the 1778 edition. I have since discovered the printer's copy for most of the plays in the 1785 edition, in the British Library, catalogued as another copy of the 1778 Variorum (shelf mark C.117.e.3). Its ten volumes, however, are not uniform with the ten of the 1778 edition, and contain in fact only 29 of the plays. With this prepared

copy it is possible to reach more precise conclusions regarding the scope and genesis of the 1785 edition, while its place in the quarrel of the editors perhaps can now be reassessed.

To begin, there can be no doubt that the 1785 edition was a considerable revision of the 1778 Variorum. The plays to be sure did not all equally attract the abilities of the editors and commentators, but even those plays which are only slightly modified may have substantive or semi-substantive textual emendations. The plays may be classified as being lightly, moderately, or heavily revised, with a lower limit suggested by 2 Henry VI, with 40 changes in the commentary and 3 in the text, and an upper range by Macbeth, with 170 changes, 9 of which affect the text.[1] Commentary notes were sent to Isaac Reed or George Steevens by Malone, Whalley, Henley, Henderson, Mason, and Reynolds, who included their commentary in letters or in small sheets ready for pasting. The letters were cut apart and tipped in, with the verso notes transcribed onto the margins of the appropriate pages. Most of the transcription is Reed's, and since he also has transcribed many of the notes by Steevens, the larger share of the work by far was his. Yet Steevens almost certainly began the project on his own, for his hand too is found in the marginal notes. I believe we might glimpse the important transfer of the edition to Reed, in a note signed by him, with the name crossed out, and the characteristic EDITOR substituted, in Steevens' hand (IV, 222).

How the 1785 edition evolved has direct bearing on our understanding of the quarrel between Malone and Steevens. Steevens wrote Malone at least twice in early 1783, assuring him that he had no intention of bringing forth another edition.[2] On the strength of this assurance, Malone announced plans for his own edition in The Gentleman's Magazine in August, 1783. A curious fact is that Malone shared his new commentary notes for the first five volumes of this set, but that he did not provide new commentary for the second five volumes. Malone's withdrawal indicates, I think, that he had smoked Steevens out in his plan to bring forth another edition with Reed as the editor, and that he properly resented the misrepresentation under which he originally had shared his commentary. The quarrel between the two editors is thought to have resulted from problems arising after the publication of the 1785 Variorum, when Steevens demanded that Malone reprint his notes unaltered, with Steevens' replies, which Malone refused to do.[3] It would now appear, however, that the falling out began during the preparation of the 1785 edition.

G. Blakemore Evans' judgment that the text of I Henry VI was carelessly printed in the 1785 Variorum[4] certainly is confirmed when the printer's copy for Macbeth is compared to the resulting text. There is warrant provided the printer for none of the 80 changes in punctuation and spelling. The

presumed substantive emendation, "When [for Whence] the sun 'gins his reflection" (1.2.25; TLN 44), is nowhere indicated in the prepared text and is probably an invention by the printer.

The concept of the Variorum edition of Shakespeare as a constantly evolving reflection of the active commentators was developed during the eighteenth century, when an edition could be revised quickly, in an informal epistolary fashion. Thus in the similarly prepared copy of the 1793 Variorum, which was to become the 1803 edition, Steevens could look with pride to this, his fifth complete Variorum edition of Shakespeare in a single lifetime.[5] There is something splendid in that achievement, and we can admire it even though we realize that the modern Variorum Shakespeare is altogether different.

Notes