(3)
In shorter books such as play-quartos, the sections of a shared book
almost inevitably exhibit some differences in the various details of layout
and setting cumulatively termed "printing style." Compositorial and textual
studies of shared play-quartos usually take note of such differences but
overlook the possibility of sharing.[8]
Caution must be exercised in interpreting such evidence, since it could
merely imply a shift between two compositors in one shop. For example,
the two Windet compositors who used the Windet-S1, and the Windet-S2
and -F cases differ in some aspects of printing style. Eld's compositors
consistently sign all four leaves of play-quartos during 1603-1606 (as do
Purfoot's compositors), but after late 1606, the practice changes to the more
common signing of only three leaves in most dramatic texts.[9] None of the five printers of
An
Answer STC12988 (1603) signs the fourth leaf, but Snodham's
section (H-L) is the only one signed with roman numerals (H, Hii, iii), an
easily recognized clue to the sharing in his section. Such peculiarities of
printing style may seem, at first glance, to be potential clues to a printer's
work in shared books. However, other factors could be responsible. In
printing two of Jonson's dramatic quartos (Sejanus
STC14782,
1605; Volpone STC14783, 1607), for example, Eld set the
speech prefixes with an initial
pica roman capital followed by small roman capitals, a rare deviation from
the standard use of italic in speech prefixes. The same setting style also
appears in Braddock's printing of
Poetaster STC14781 (1602)
and Snodham's
Alchemist STC14755 (1610). Thus it seems
more probably attributable to Jonson's direct involvement in the printing of
these plays than to a shop's practice. The two could be confused and lead
to the erroneous suspicion that Eld printed sheets CD of
d'Olive
STC4983 (1606), given the possibility that Eld-Y1 and Eld-S1, used
previously in Eld's books, could have been mixed to produce the font in
CD (the fact that Braddock did not use an S-font eliminates him from
consideration). Compositorial preferences are a primary consideration. Both
Simmes's and Jaggard's compositors periodically switched to a lower-case
initial letter in italic speech prefixes possibly because of shortages in the
capitals, and / or they punctuated alternately with colons or
commas instead of periods. The appearance of the former atypical practice
in
Isle of Gulls STC6212 (1607; see H) and
Dutch
Courtesan STC17475 (1605; see H3v-4) provides a preliminary clue
to the possibility of Jaggard's involvement; Simmes is easily rejected since
his pica roman font is in the wrong face.
