The Final Quires of the Jonson 1616
Workes: Headline Evidence
by
Kevin J. Donovan
Jonson's 1616 Workes, a folio-in-sixes collating
¶6 A-4P6 4Q4, is a
bibliographically complex book, and
nowhere more so than in the final quires, 4F-4Q, which contain the text of
the masques. Here we find frequent headline dislocations and, in 4M-4Q,
extensive resetting, as well as the reimposition of a number of unreset
pages.[1] In quires 4M-4Q and quire
¶, which was printed last, it is sometimes difficult to establish the
sequence of some of
the printing variants. However, evidence from headline rules found in the
Workes and in another book helps to resolve most of this
difficulty. Two skeletons that first appear in quire 4P of the Jonson volume
come from another folio-in-sixes produced by Stansby in 1616,
The
Surueyor in Foure Bookes by Aaron Rathborne (STC 20748),
collating A-V
6 X
4. The headline rules
show when these skeletons
left the Rathborne volume for use in the Jonson Folio, and when they
returned to
The Surveyor, but changed in ways ascribable to
their use in the
Workes. The condition of the rules in
The
Surveyor helps to establish the temporal sequence of variant
impressions in the last quires of the
Workes.
Besides settling the problem of the order of variants, the evidence
from the headline rules shared by the Workes and The
Surveyor enables us to recognize an instance of printing-house
negligence in quire 4P. What appears to be an obvious press-correction in
the text of Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists, on
4P5v, can now be identified as the introduction of a gross
error by the
printers; the correct state is the earlier one.
In addition, a dated preface in the Rathborne book provides a later
date for Jonson's Workes than has yet been proposed.
The basis of this study is an examination of eight copies of the Jonson
Folio at the Folger Shakespeare Library (including two large-paper copies),
two at the Library of Congress, six copies at Harvard's Houghton Library,
one complete and one incomplete copy at the Boston Public Library, one
at the Newberry Library, the Scolar Press facsimile of a copy at the
Bodleian Library, microfilm reproductions of two copies (one on large
paper) at the British Library, and a microprint of a copy at the New York
Public Library. The copy of Rathborne's Surveyor referred
to
is that in the Rare Book Room of the University of Wisconsin's Memorial
Library, which I have checked against a microfilm copy.[2]
The extensive resetting in quires 4M to 4O of the
Workes
is documented by Simpson in the Oxford Ben Jonson (HS,
IX,
30-40). The text is wholly reset in all the pages of quire 4M except
4M2r and the bottom half of 4M2v; and
in formes
4N3r.4v,
4N1v.6r,
4O3v.4r, and
4O3r.4v. In addition to this resetting, as
Gerritsen recognized,
"with two exceptions [4P3v.4r and
4P1v.6r],
all those formes of 4M-4P which were not reset were reimposed."
[3] That is, all of these formes are
found to
have been printed twice, each time with a different skeleton. We may add
to this list 4Q1
r.[4
v] and
¶3
v.4
r, which were also
twice impressed.
[4] What seems to
have happened is that a mistake was made in counting the number of sheets
required for printing these formes, which were then printed short.
Apparently the counting error was discovered about the time that quire 4P
was being printed, since there are two invariant formes in this quire. Then
"all the undistributed type of these quires was collected, the missing
portions were reset, and further copies printed to make up the numbers"
(Gerritsen, 1959, p. 55). The resetting did not involve correction of the
text, and some trivial errors were introduced. In the unreset but reimposed
pages only three variants appear in sheets between impressions; two of
these are trivial and the third is the miscorrection of 4P5
v
mentioned
above which, as we shall see, was probably caused by a disturbance of the
standing type.
This theory would require that at the time of resetting and
reimposition Stansby had a good deal of type standing—"37 folio
pages"
in Dr. Gerritsen's estimate (1959, p. 55). That Stansby had a large amount
of type at his disposal is indicated in other ways. The headlines in the
Workes reveal a large number of skeletons in use. In contrast
to the Shakespeare Folio of 1623, printed with never more than two
skeletons, and to the Beaumont and Fletcher Folio of 1647, whose various
sections were printed with only one or two skeletons at a time, four to six
skeletons at a time were normally employed in the Jonson Folio.[5] This difference is not due to the
different
style of page layout used in the Jonson Workes. The
Stansby/Jonson Folio, using english-size type stretching the width of the
page rather than pica crowded into double columns, required fewer types
per page than did these two other folio collections; however, Stansby
nonetheless
seems to have had much more type at his disposal than did Jaggard.
Although the circumstances involved in the final quires are exceptional, my
examination of recurrent types in Every Man Out of His
Humour, where printing began, found that Stansby usually had an
entire quire of type—twelve folio pages—left standing at a
time.
As we shall see, the large-paper copies of the Workes
always contain the original impressions of all the reset and reimposed sheets
in quires 4M-4P,
and possibly in quires 4Q and ¶ although the evidence is less conclusive
there.
[6] While some small-paper
copies are confined to the later impressions, others have some sheets of the
earlier printing bound up with reimposed sheets. Evidently the large-paper
copies were run first during the printing of the final quires; then Stansby
began the small-paper copies, where the counting error occurred.
Most pages in the Workes have headlines consisting of
double-pica italic running titles and page numbers enclosed between two
horizontal rules, although sometimes the rules alone appear, when the
headlines have been removed for specific reasons, such as the presence of
a head title on the page. The individual types of the running titles,
especially those with kerns, are often battered or bent in distinctive ways
that allow them to be readily identified. In most of the book, the orderly
alternation of running titles paired as forme-mates shows clearly that the
headlines were treated as an integral part of the skeleton. The rules, too,
are usually distinctively bent or nicked, and regularly recur with the same
headlines. Some pairs of headline rules continue relatively unchanged for
long periods in the volume.
In the later quires of the Workes, the rules become the
primary means of skeleton identification, because of the frequent dislocation
of the running titles. In quires 4F-4Q the running titles on both the recto
and verso pages read "Masques", although thirteen different
"works" are included in this section. When a new masque began a page and
was introduced by a head title, Stansby's men usually removed the headline,
leaving only the headline rules. When this occurred in quires 4K-4N,
several running titles moved from one skeleton to another. However, the
rules continued to recur regularly in the same positions; thus we can still
identify the skeletons used in this section as the same four that are found
throughout quires 4F-4O, reset pages excepted. Even though the positions
of the running titles change several times, we can recognize on the basis of
the headline rules that the original impressions of quires 4F-4O are printed
with the same four skeletons found in the
last quires of the preceding section, Entertaynments. (In quire
4P two new skeletons appear.)
The headline configurations found in quires 4F-4K are identified in
the chart below. First, however, a word of explanation is necessary. The
succeeding charts describe the configurations of the running titles and
headline rules, which are the usual basis for skeleton identification. For
convenience I have labelled each configuration of paired headline elements
as a "skeleton," although strictly speaking only four skeleton formes were
used in the original
impressions of quires 4F-4O. The headline configurations are labelled with
an arabic numeral and a capital letter. The former refers to the rules which,
except for the change in quire 4G, remain constant; however, since the
running titles change position so frequently, I assign a letter to the skeletons
that changes with the successive changes in the headlines.
- Skeleton 1A:
- Running title I: 4F4r, 4F2r,
4G4r, 4G5r,
4H1r, 4I5r, 4I1r,
4K3r, 4K1r
- Running title VIII: 4F3v, 4F5v,
4G3v, 4G2v,
4H6v, 4I2v, 4I6v,
4K4v, 4K6v
- Skeleton 2A:
- Running title IIa: 4F6v, 4G4v,
4G6v; Running title
IIb: 4H2v, 4H1v, 4I4v,
4K1v, 4K2v
- Running title VII: 4G3r, 4G1r,
4H5r, 4H6r,
4I3r, 4K6r,
4K5r
- Skeleton 3A:
- Running title VI: 4F4v
- Running title V: 4F3r,
4F6r
- Skeleton 4A:
- Running title III: 4F2v,
4G1v
- Running title IV: 4F5r,
4G6r
During the printing of quire 4G, the headline elements of Skeletons
3A and 4A were recombined; the recto headline of Skeleton 3A
(i.e., Running title V) was combined with the verso headline
(i.e., Running title III) of Skeleton 4A to form 'Skeleton 3B'.
The verso headline (i.e., Running title VI) of Skeleton 3A
was
combined with a new running title (Running title IX) within the recto
headline rules of Skeleton 4 to form 'Skeleton 4B'. The reconstituted
skeletons appear on the following pages:
- Skeleton 3B:
- Running title III: 4G5v, 4H4v,
4H5v, 4I5v,
4I1v, 4K5v
- Running title V: 4G2r, 4H3r,
4H2r, 4I2r,
4I6r, 4K2r
- Skeleton 4B:
- Running title VI: 4H3v, 4I3v,
4K3v
- Running title IX: 4H4r, 4I4r,
4K4r
After quire 4G there were no further complications until quire 4K. In
quires 4K and 4L and in the original impression of quires 4M and 4N,
running titles were again shifted from one skeleton to another. These
dislocations were caused by the removal of the running titles from pages
that begin with head titles. Thus the following headline changes occurred
in quires 4K and 4L. After forme
4K1v.6r was printed, with
Skeleton 2A intact, forme 4K2v.5r was
printed with the same
skeleton; however, Running title VII was removed from between the recto
rules of Skeleton 2A because 4K5r contains the head title
for The
Masque of Queenes. (4K5r was printed with no
headline but with
the recto headline rules of Skeleton 2A intact.) The removal of Running
title VII led to a number of consequent changes in the headlines of quire
4L. When Skeleton 2 next appears, in formes
4L2r.5v and
4L1v.6r, Running title VII has been
replaced by Running title I,
removed from
the recto headline of Skeleton 1A. The new Skeleton 2 configuration is
now designated Skeleton 2B. It consists of the same headline rules as
Skeleton 2A, with Running title IIb still in the verso position and Running
title I now in the recto position.
In addition, these same dislocations caused the changes that
transformed Skeleton 1A into Skeleton 1B. We have seen that Running title
I went to Skeleton 2B. Replacing Running title I in the recto headline of
Skeleton 1 is Running title VI (which had been in the verso headline of
Skeleton 4B as late as the printing of forme
4L3v.4r, printed with
Skeleton 4B intact). Running title VII, removed from Skeleton 2A when
forme 4K2v.5r was printed with a head
title, next appears in the
verso headline of Skeleton 1, displacing Running title VIII.
Skeleton 4B is in turn changed into the configuration I have called
Skeleton 4C. Running title VIII, displaced from the verso headline of
Skeleton 1A, reappears in the verso headline of Skeleton 4, which was left
vacant by the relocation of Running title VI to Skeleton 2B cited above. The
recto headline of Skeleton 4 remains unaffected by these changes; Skeleton
3B, too, is unchanged.
The headlines remained this way until another, similar dislocation
occurred in quires 4M and 4N. Thus the skeletons from quire 4L into 4N
are identified and designated as follows:
- Skeleton 1B (same rules as Skeleton 1A):
- Running title VI (replacing I): 4L3r,
4L5r, 4M5r,
4N5r
- Running title VII (replacing VIII): 4L4v,
4L2v,
4M2v, 4N2v
- Skeleton 2B (same rules as Skeleton 2A):
- Running title I (replacing VII): 4L2r,
4L6r
- Running title IIb: 4L5v, 4L1v,
4N5v
- Skeleton 4C:
- Running title VIII (replacing VI): 4L6v,
4M3v,
4M1v, 4N4v
- Running title IX: 4L1r, 4M4r,
4M6r,
4N3r
- Skeleton 3B (unchanged):
- Running title III: 4M5v, 4M6v,
4M4v
- Running title V: 4M2r,
4M1r
In the original impressions of quires 4M and 4N, the three pages
4M3r, 4N2r, and 4N6v
contain no running titles because they
contain head titles. The removal of the headlines on 4M3r
and
4N2r brought about changes which transformed Skeleton
3B into
Skeleton 3C; this occurred in the following way. After formes
4M1r.6v and
4M2r.5v were printed with Skeleton 3B
intact, 4M3r.4v was printed without a
recto running title, because
4M3r begins with the head title to Prince Henry's
Barriers.
When Skeleton 3 next appeared, in quire 4N (formes
4N3v.4r and
4N1v.6r), Running title I occupied the
recto headline (filling the
space left empty on 4M3r); this is the configuration
labelled Skeleton
3C.
Running title I had been removed from Skeleton 2B before forme
4N2r.5v was printed because
4N2r contains the head title for
Oberon the Faery Prince. Thus Skeleton 2B appeared on
forme
4N2r.5v with a complete verso headline
but without a recto running title. However, when forme
4N1
r.6
v
was being imposed in this skeleton, the verso running title had to be
removed because 4N6
v contains the head title for
Love Freed
from Ignorance and Folly. Whereas the recto headline of Skeleton
2B
lacked a running title and now needed one on 4N1
r, the
verso running
title (IIb) was transferred to the recto headline for the printing of forme
4N1
r.6
v. The skeleton now lacked a
verso running title. A new one
was composed, using letters from Running title V (removed from Skeleton
3B on page 4M3
r); I have labelled it Running title X. This
new
configuration, "Skeleton 2C," can be seen in formes
4O3
r.4
v and
4O2
r.5
v. Skeletons 1B and 4C are
unaffected by these changes.
Thus the skeletons in the original impressions of formes
4N3
v.4
r,
4N1
v.6
r, and
4N1
r.6
v, and of quire 4O are as follows:
- Skeleton 1B (same rules as former Skeleton 1A):
- Running title VI: 4O4r
- Running title VII: 4O3v
- Skeleton 2C (same rules as former Skeletons 2A and
2B):
- Running title IIb: 4N1r, 4O3r,
4O2r
- Running title X: 4O4v,
4O5v
- Skeleton 3C (same rules as former Skeleton 3B):
- Running title I: 4N4r, 4N6r,
4O5r
- Running title III: 4N3v, 4N1v,
4O2v
- Skeleton 4C (same rules as former Skeleton 4B):
- Running title VIII: 4O6v,
4O1v
- Running title IX: 4O1r,
4O6r
All of the preceding discussion has concerned the original impressions
only. The headlines show that the resetting in quires 4M-4O
took place after the original imposition and printing of all the quires in the
volume. All of the reset pages were printed with the same skeleton, which
we will call "Skeleton o", whose headlines were composed of various
elements taken from the headlines of Skeletons 3C and 4C.[7] Because Skeletons 3C and 4C
remain
intact to the end of the volume in the original impressions and are also
found intact in some of the reimposed but unreset formes, Skeleton o cannot
have been constructed before the miscounted sheets of the final quires were
all printed and before some unreset formes were reimposed to correct the
counting error. In addition to the reset formes, several of the unreset
formes were reimposed in Skeleton o, specifically
4N3v.4r,
4N1r.6v, and
4N2v.5r. Thus these sheets were
reimposed
at about
the same time as the reset pages, and there is no difficulty distinguishing
the earlier impressions of these formes from the reimpressions.[8]
The remaining unreset but reimposed formes were not reimposed with
Skeleton o; thus the earlier states are not distinguished from the later ones
so readily. These are 4N2r.5v; both
formes of sheets 4O1.6,
4O2.5, and 4P2.5; and formes 4P3r.4v,
4P1r.6v,
4Q1r.[4v], and
¶3v.4r. Forme
4N2r.5v varies
between some copies (including the large-paper copies) printed with
Skeleton 2B and others printed with Skeleton 3C. The latter state is found
in sheets perfected with Skeleton o, which, as we noted above, could not
have been constructed until after the completion of the original impressions
and some reimpositions. The use of Skeleton o in the perfecting forme
suggests that the impression of 4N2r.5v
in Skeleton 3C is the later
one, and the impression in Skeleton 2B the original. This conclusion is
supported by the fact that Skeleton 3C was used in other reimpositions (as
we will see below), while Skeleton 2 is last seen intact in the original
imposition of quire 4O. Finally we may note that the original state of
4N2r.5v, printed with Skeleton 2B but
lacking a recto headline,
helps to explain the progression of the headlines from the configuration of
Skeleton 2B to that of 2C, as well as the change from Skeleton 3B to
Skeleton 3C, as described above. Since Skeleton 3C came into being as a
result of the impression of 4N2r.5v with
Skeleton 2B, the
impression of this forme with Skeleton 3C must be the later one.
The reimpressed but unreset formes in quires 4O and 4P can be
considered as a group; they are listed below. The large-paper states are the
originals, the others the reimpressions.
Forme
|
Skeleton found in large-paper copies
[9]
|
Skeleton found in other copies
|
4O2v.5r
|
Skeleton 3C |
Skeleton 1Bv.6r
|
4O2r.5v
|
Skeleton 2C |
Skeleton 4C |
4O1v.6r
|
Skeleton 4C |
Skeleton 3C |
4O1r.6v
|
Skeleton 4C |
Skeleton 1Br.2Cv
|
4P3r.4v
|
Skeleton 6 |
Skeleton 4C |
4P2v.5r
|
Skeleton 5 |
Skeleton 1Bv.6r
|
4P2r.5v
|
Skeleton 6 |
Skeleton 1Br.2Cv
|
4P1r.6v
|
Skeleton 1B |
Skeleton 1Bv.6r
|
A few words of explanation are in order. The skeletons in the right
hand column above labelled 1 Br.2Cv and
1Bv.6r are so
designated to describe their composite character. Skeleton
1Br.2Cv
is a combination of the recto headline and rules of Skeleton 1B (now placed
in the verso position) with the verso headline and rules of Skeleton 2C (now
placed in the recto position). Skeleton
1B
v.6
r is composed of the verso headline
[10] of Skeleton 1B paired with the
recto
headline rules and verso running title of Skeleton 6 as seen in the
large-paper copies of 4P3
r.4
v and
4P2
r.5
v. The hybrid
character of Skeletons 1B
v.6
r and
1B
r.2C
v is itself an
indication that the formes printed with them are reimpressions, not
originals. Skeleton 1B, which was split apart to create these two hybrid
skeletons, is found intact in the large-paper copies of formes
4P1
r.6
v, and in all copies of
4Q2
v.3
r and
¶3
v.4
r. This suggests that the
reimpression of the variant sheets
in quires 4O and 4P took place after the original imposition of all of the
final quires; at any rate there can be little doubt that Skeletons
1B
v.6
r and
1B
r.2C
v are found on reimposed sheets,
and
that Skeletons 1B, 2C and 6, when found intact, precede them.
The second salient feature in the list above is the appearance of two
new skeletons in the printing of the original copies. Skeletons 5 and 6 first
appear in the large-paper copies of quire 4P; Skeleton 5 can be seen in all
copies of the Workes on
4P3v.4r, an invariant forme.
Both the rules and the running titles of these two skeletons are wholly new
to the Jonson volume. Fortunately, the rules are quite distinctive: they are
the same as those found in quires N-R of The Surveyor. The
rules of Skeleton 6 are particularly recognizable. Here are the verso
headlines as seen on R3v of The Surveyor:
The headline rules of Skeleton 5 are less striking, but can also be
readily identified. Skeletons 5 and 6 can be traced back to the early quires
of the Rathborne book, although they are at first hardly recognizable as the
same rules.[11] Gradually, through
wear and through changes in the positions of the rules, they assume the
configurations seen in the Jonson Folio. Quires N-R of The
Surveyor are printed with Skeletons 5 and 6 alone. In quire R the
headline rules look virtually the same as those in certain copies of the
Workes, quire 4P. In quire S of The Surveyor
to its
end, however, not only do these rules enclose running titles in different
types, but the position of the rules changes and the two pairs of headline
rules in Skeleton 6 are now separated and appear in two different
skeletons.
This separation of the two sets of headline rules from Skeleton 6 is
explained by the composition of Skeleton
1Bv.6r in the
Workes. The recto headline was separated from its
forme-mate
and paired with the verso headline from Skeleton 1B. This fact indicates
that Skeletons 5 and 6 were transferred to the Workes
between
the printing of quires R and S of The Surveyor.
Further evidence that the final quires of the Workes
were
printed between quires R and S of The Surveyor is seen in
the
fact that on S3r of The Surveyor we find the
recto headline
rules of Skeleton 2 as they appear on 4Q4r of the
Workes,
their last appearance in the book. When Skeletons 5 and 6 returned to
The Surveyor from the Workes, these headline
rules
went with them.
Recognition of the prior integrity of Skeleton 6 establishes the
originality of the large-paper impressions of formes
4O2v.5r,
4O1r.6v,
4P3r.4v,
4P2v.5r,
4P2r.5v, and
4P1r.6v. There is good reason for
supposing that the large-paper
copies of formes 4O2r.5v,
4O1v.6r, and
4P3r.4v
are also original impressions, as they perfect original impressions. The
large-paper copies of 4O2r.5v, showing
the last appearance of
Skeleton 2C intact, had to have been printed before forme
4Q1v.4r,
where we find the recto headline of Skeleton 2C paired with a new
forme-mate in all copies. As we have noted, the reimpressions
were apparently not done until after the printing of all the original and
invariant formes in the final quires and preliminaries.
We are now in a position to describe the original printing of quires
4O an 4P. 4O3v.4r was originally printed
with Skeleton 1B,
4O3r.4v and
4O2r.5v with Skeleton 2C,
4O2v.5r
with Skeleton 3C, and both formes of sheet 4O1.6 with Skeleton 4C.
In quire 4P Skeletons 5 and 6 were introduced. Formes
4P3v.4r and
4P2v.5r were printed with Skeleton 5 and
their perfecting formes with Skeleton 6.
4P1v.6r was printed with
Skeleton 3C and 4P1r.6v with Skeleton
1B.
The sequence of the variant impressions has some textual
significance. On 4O6v, line 35, the original setting gives
the word
"ripned"; in the later impression this reads "rip'ned." This would appear
to be a straightforward case of press-correction.[12]
A more interesting case is that of the variants in
4P5v. In the
large-paper copies and others, we find at lines 9-10 "a thing of nothing . .
. a | toy, a lease"; the other copies give "nothing of nothing . . . a | any
lease". The two states of this page are recorded by Simpson as a
press-correction, which is what they would normally appear to be; they
seem also to have been accepted as such by Jackson.[13] However, the headlines show that
the
correct state, the one printed with Skeleton 6 intact, is the earlier one, while
the garbled version is the reimpression. The variants are confined to the
left-hand margin of two consecutive lines. Apparently the standing type was
disturbed between the two impressions, and Stansby's staff haphazardly
reconstructed the gap in the text by guesswork, rather than referring to their
copy. This example underscores the Oxford editors' recognition that "the
text of the entertainments and masques is often carelessly
printed" (a recognition that, unfortunately, weakens the authority of the
Oxford edition for the texts of several masques).[14]
We have been able to identify with confidence the large-paper copies
of the masques' quires through 4P as the originals. Such confidence
diminishes when we examine the headline evidence in 4Q and ¶. Quire
4Q is a gathering of two sheets. The text of the masques ends with the
conclusion of The Golden Age Restored on
4Q4r.4Q4v
is a blank page. A major textual variant occurs on 4Q3v
and 4Q4r
with the repositioning of two speeches. In most copies, Astraea's final
speech and the "Galliards and Coranto's" (ll. 221-240 in HS)
precede Pallas's final speech and the Chorus's couplet of praise to Jove (ll.
199-220); in the large-paper copies (and some small-paper copies) they are
transposed as they appear in the Oxford edition. The positions of the
speeches were changed without any disturbance to the surrounding text, and
the headlines of these two pages and of their forme-mates are
invariant.
Forme 4Q2r.3v was printed with
Skeleton 4C.
4Q1v.4r is anomalous, as it was printed
with a new hybrid
skeleton, composed of the recto headline of Skeleton 2C paired with another
headline, one that appears nowhere else in the volume. We have already
noted that 4Q4r gives us the last appearance of the recto
headline of
Skeleton 2C in the Workes (the recto rules then go to
S3r
of The Surveyor). The verso headline of Skeleton 2C (i.e.
Running title X within Skeleton 2C's verso rules) is found in the more
common state of 4Q1r—the only variant headline in
quire 4Q—and
in most copies of ¶6r; this formerly verso headline
now occupies
a recto position. The forme-mates of both 4Q1r and
¶6r are
blank pages. (This configuration would seem to be preliminary to the
creation of Skeleton 1Br.2Cv, which pairs
this headline in this
position with the recto headline from Skeleton 1B, now occupying the verso
position.) The large-paper copies
of 4Q1r were printed with a headline found nowhere else
in the volume
except for the variant copies of ¶6r. This headline will
be discussed
below at greater length.
Quire ¶ contains the preliminaries to the Workes,
and
the headlines have no running titles, but rules and page numbers. The first
leaf of this quire is a blank. ¶2r contains the title page
to the
Workes and ¶2v is a blank page. Thus
only
¶3r-¶6v have headlines.
¶[2v].5r bears the recto
headline rules from Skeleton 3C, and
¶[2r].5v the verso
headline rules from Skeleton 4C. Besides
¶[1v].6r, only one
other forme, ¶3r.4v, was reimposed.
The large-paper copies
etc. were printed with Skeleton 4C, the others with Skeleton
1Br.2Cv. The large-paper copies would
seem to be the originals,
as ¶3v.4r shows Skeleton 1B still
intact in all copies.
Three wholly new headlines appear in quires 4Q and ¶. One of
these occurs in all copies of ¶6v, whose forme-mate
is a blank
page; the only other place in the volume where these rules appear is the
headline of 3S2v, an anomalous headline over the text of
Catiline, whose forme-mate, 3S5r, the
title-page of the
Epigrammes, lacks a headline; Dr. Gerritsen believes that
"forgetfulness in printing . . . or perhaps a reluctance to decide on its form
[i.e. the typography of the title-page to
Epigrammes],
deferred
the printing of [3S2
v.5
r] till the end of
the volume."
[15] Another new headline appears in
all
copies of 4Q1
v, paired with the recto headline of Skeleton
2C as a
forme-mate (on 4Q4
r). This is the only appearance of this
headline in
the
Workes.
The third new headline is particularly intriguing. It is found in the
large-paper copies of 4Q1r and a few variant copies of
¶6r. In
both of its appearances it has no verso forme-mate; thus it displays a
distinct skeleton configuration and can be labelled "Skeleton 7". In both of
its appearances Skeleton 7 is related to textual variants. Although there are
no variants on 4Q1r,
4Q1r.[4v] perfects
4Q1v.4r,
where a major variant, the change in the ending to The Golden Age
Restored, occurs. The so-called revised ending is always found in
copies (including all the large-paper copies) that show Skeleton 7 on
4Q1r.[4v]; Skeleton 7 appears only in
copies with the "revised"
ending. The other appearance of Skeleton 7 is even more remarkable in that
it is directly related to a textual change and in the fact that it presents the
only variation among large-paper copies that I have seen in these later
quires. On some copies of ¶6r, including some
though not all of the large-paper copies, side-notes are added to the
commendatory verses found on this page. The copies containing the
side-notes were imposed with Skeleton 7, the others, including some
large-paper copies, were imposed with the verso headline of Skeleton 2C
in the recto position, i.e. with the recto headline of Skeleton
1Br.2Cv, perhaps before it was paired
with the recto headline from
Skeleton 1B. The introduction of the side-notes indicates that some of the
large-paper copies of this sheet were printed after most of the copies. It is
only logical to suppose that the side-notes on the verses were added late
rather than deleted early during the printing of forme
¶[1v].6r.
There is no good reason for deleting them, whereas their addition serves a
good purpose; "Without them it would not be clear that Donne's verses
referred to Volpone" (HS IX, 52). Likewise the large-paper
version of the ending to The Golden Age Restored has always
been
regarded as the revised state by literary critics.[16] It is quite likely that we have in
the
outermost sheets of quires 4Q and ¶ a reversal of the pattern we have
seen in quires 4M-4P, where the large-paper copies were demonstrably the
first printed.
On the other hand, the large-paper state of the only other reimpressed
forme in these two quires, ¶3r.4v,
printed with Skeleton 4C,
precedes the variant state, which was printed with Skeleton
1Br.2Cv; the latter skeleton cannot have
been composed until the
two halves of Skeleton 1B were split apart, but Skeleton 1B is found intact
on all copies of formes 4Q2v.3r and
¶3v.4r.
The evidence suggests that the sheets printed with Skeleton 7 were
reimpressions. Thus, the large-paper copies of sheet 4Q1.4 and some
large-paper copies of sheet ¶1.6 were reimpressed after the printing of
¶3r.4v, a forme which seems to
conform to the pattern of
quires 4M-4P in that the large-paper version is manifestly the original. The
alternative supposition, that the sidenotes on ¶6r were
deleted rather
than added and that the revised ending of The Golden Age
Restored (i.e., the large-paper version) is in fact the
original, and the version ending with the speech of Pallas and the praise of
Jove the revision, is much less likely.
Why so many new skeletons should have appeared in these final
quires is not wholly clear. We now know that Stansby interrupted the
printing of The Surveyor to transfer Skeletons 5 and 6 to the
Workes. It seems reasonable to suppose that the counting
error
which necessitated the resetting and reimposition in the final quires was
discovered in the course of printing quire 4P, where we find two formes
(4P3v.4r and
4P1v.6r) which were not reimposed; we
might then suppose that the discovery of the counting error caused Stansby
to devote all of his resources to the completion of the Jonson Folio. The
problem with this explanation is the fact that three of the four formes
impressed with Skeletons 5 and
6—4P3r.4v,
4P2v.5r,
and 4P2r.5v—were also printed
short, as was
¶3r.4v.
Because we can see when Skeletons 5 and 6 left and returned to
The Surveyor, we have new evidence for the date of the
completion of the Workes. Dr. Gerritsen concluded that the
Jonson Folio was completed "not long after the beginning of summer" in
1616 (1959, p. 55). However, Rathborne's preface to the reader on
A6v of The Surveyor ends with the
following: 'From my
Lodging, at the house of M. ROGER BURGIS, against
Salisburie-house-gate in the Strand, this sixt of Nouember, 1616.'
Quire A contains the preliminaries of The Surveyor; as one
woúld expect, it was not the first quire in the volume to be printed.
However, neither was it the last. The condition of the headline rules shows
that quire A was printed some time between quires K and M.[17] The dated preface may have been
delivered to Stansby with the rest of the book, in which case 16 quires or
47 sheets of the book were printed between the first week of
November and the time of the original printing of quire 4P of the
Workes. However, even if the dedication were written just
before quire A was printed, at least seven or eight quires (A plus L or M
through R), or 20-23 sheets of The Surveyor were printed
between that time and the printing of 4P in the Workes. (We
have already seen that Skeletons 5 and 6 entered Workes
quire
4P between the printing of The Surveyor quires R and S.) At
this point, eight sheets still remained to be printed in the Jonson Folio, not
counting resetting and reimposition. Thus at the very least 25 edition sheets,
and possibly 55 edition sheets, were printed between November 6 and the
completion of the Jonson Workes. Stansby printed over 695
(and possibly over 700) edition sheets in 1616, which gives a
monthly average of over 57 sheets.
[18]
No doubt the rates of production varied greatly, but this figure at least
provides a point of reference: that about two weeks to a month passed
between November 6 and the completion of the
Workes
seems
a plausible estimate. Thus late November or early December, 1616 seems
a likely date for the completion of the Jonson 1616 Folio.
There is one more issue raised by the evidence of Skeletons 5 and 6
that I would like to mention, and that is the possibility of concurrent
printing in Stansby's shop. When Skeletons 5 and 6 entered the
Workes, 17 quires (A-R), or 51 sheets, of The
Surveyor had already been printed, as well as 83 quires, or 249
sheets, of the Workes. I see no reason to suppose that the
printing of the Workes was interrupted when the 17
Surveyor quires were printed; the headline rules in the
Workes are too regular in their continuation from earlier
quires.
The Surveyor quires may well have been printed concurrently
with the latter part of the Workes.
Notes