University of Virginia Library

III

In the absence of dates of entry in the Stationers' Register for Bynneman's books from 1573, the reconstruction of the printing context of A Hundreth and the dating of its sections must rely upon the temporal reference points established by the sequence of transformations in Bynneman-Y1 and any additional timing evidence which illuminates the production schedule. Several variables can affect the accuracy of such a reconstruction. In this instance, the survey included only those books listed in the outdated P. G. Morrison's Index of Printers and Publishers for Bynneman, Middleton, and East: the new index (Volume 3 of the revised STC) may reveal additional books which could shift the temporal reference points somewhat. Second, some of Bynneman's output may be hidden in undetected shared sections in books by printers other than Middleton and East. However, given the identified output from Bynneman's shop, such a shift would be negligible. Third, the method of defining the temporal reference points is of necessity based upon an average weekly production rate calculated from the annual production rate. This method cannot account for the possibility of radical fluctuations in production rates from week to week due to various mechanical factors such

as equipment failures and the difficulties presented by certain kinds of texts. For example, learned Latin texts probably required more time than vernacular ephemera; the outstanding quality of books such as De furoribus STC13846 and Historia STC20309 attest to this likelihood. Overall, the reconstructed schedule for 1573 seems realistic and, furthermore, the reference points for the sections of A Hundreth could vary considerably without affecting our understanding of the textual problems.

The identified total annual production of 466 sheets in 1573 is comprised of the 434 sheets in books containing Bynneman-Y1 and an additional 32 sheets in four other books. An average weekly production rate of 9.3 sheets per week is calculated on the basis of fifty working weeks per year (one week holidays at Christmas and Easter). This weekly average yields an average of 1.55 sheets per day (approximately 300 working days per year), a figure which reasonably approximates the output to be expected from a three-press shop over the long term.[20] The following assignment of specific reference points is necessary for the sake of argument and overlooks the reality of weekly variations in production and the possibility that part or all of Q2 STC25428 was printed in January 1573. The thirty-two sheets in books not containing Bynneman-Y1 have arbitrarily been placed at year's end: thus the reference points could be early by as much as 3.4 weeks.

Group I. Bynneman-Y1a, STC11635a. The printing of the twenty-one sheets of Group I, including A Hundreth STC11635a, required a minimum of two weeks. Two factors suggest that Group I extended into early February. Bibliographical evidence suggests that the printing of A Hundreth STC 11635a (B-X) was interrupted at least once, and probably twice, resulting in minor delays which are negligible in regard to overall production time and the issue of textual evolution. The fact that the pagination error between F4v (page 36) and G1 (page 45) dropped eight page numbers (37-44), or one gathering, suggests a calculation error of the kind that could be expected following the interruption by an intervening job. A compositorial misimposition of signatures and/or page numbers from the last-distributed forme presumes a serial distribution followed by imposition and is easily detected because the error usually affects only the sequence of signatures and/or page numbers.[21] However, the error at pages 36-45 cannot have occurred

through such a mis-imposition of numbers salvaged from either previous forme. In fact, this process was more likely to eliminate the error since a goodly supply of "3" and possibly a "9" (from "29" in the outer forme) would have been on the stone, requiring only a new "7 8" to complete the decade. A return to A Hundreth after an intervening job produces a different situation. Foremost is the fact that all type would have been distributed, thereby eliminating any erroneous transfer of page numbers. Second, the perfected sheet F would have been removed to the warehouse. Third, copy would have been marked to indicate that sheet G was the next to be set. However, the compositor's mark consisted only of the typical elongated bracket or slash followed by a marginal notation "G" or "G1".[22] The marking of page numbers was irrelevant in copy set seriatim for single-skeleton imposition; the error proves that no page number was marked. Given standard shop practice for a manuscript containing a title and preliminaries, the compositor would assume that the play-text began on A3r which would be assigned page number 1, resulting in a four-page negative offset for the calculation. F would then be the sixth sheet running to page 48 less the offset of four pages, or page 44. Sheet G thus began with page number 45. In short, the pagination error occurred because the compositor assumed that the text began in sheet A rather than B.

The evidence of an interruption between sheets E and F is less certain. First, the furniture of the skeleton surrounding the running-titles underwent some modification with the result that the relationship between the running-titles of the inner and outer formes shifted laterally about five letters from the previously accurate registration. Second, Bynneman-S1 was fouled extensively in the speech prefixes of B-E with Bynneman-Y1a 'E P' and Guyot 'C D'. The frequency of these foul-case letters drops radically in sheet F and after (for example, all fourteen 'D' in sheet G are correct-face). The Y1a and Guyot capitals seem to have been purged at a single time following sheet E rather than during the distribution of each previous fouled forme; if so, a slight interruption probably resulted, given the difficulty of the task of purging wrong-face roman capitals. The single-skeleton method of imposition in use in B-X points to a single compositor who could not simultaneously attend to composition and purging: an interruption was thus a necessary condition for the latter.[23]

Group II. Bynneman-Y1b (running total: 99 sheets). The seventy-eight sheets of Group II required about 8.4 weeks for printing prior to the transformation to Y1c in STC25429. The two learned Latin texts (Historia STC

20309, 28 sheets; De Furoribus STC13845-46, 14 sheets) printed in this group probably extended printing time beyond the fourth week of March and into April.

Group III. Bynneman-Y1c, STC11635b (running total: 226 sheets). A combination of factors suggests that STC11635b was printed in late May at the earliest. The regular alternation of three skeletons imposed according to the single skeleton method indicates that the printing of STC25429 G-2X proceeded without interruption into the second or third week of May, given 4.6 weeks for its forty-three sheets plus Easter week vacation. The typographical evidence noted above is complemented by the circumstances of publication. The royal furor caused by the surreptitious publication of An Admonition to Parliament Q1-2 STC10847-48 in June-August 1572 and A Second Admonition STC4713 in mid-November finally culminated in the Queen's Proclamation of 11 June 1573 after an unsuccessful year-long attempt to ferret out the secret Puritan press and suppress the books. An early reprinting of An Answer is understandable given the market situation created by the high-profile Admonitionist controversy.[24] Bynneman simply would not have interrupted the printing of Q3 STC25429 G-2X to continue work on A Hundreth and, in fact, gave STC11635 2A-S to Middleton in order to avoid an interruption of some book. The sharing of A Hundreth could also have been occasioned by two other longer books of Group III (STC25010, 21 sheets; STC24788, 33 sheets). Overall, the printing of Group III extended about 25.3 weeks in 1573, or through the second week of July.

Group IV. Bynneman-Y1d, STC11635c,d. The printing of the 173 sheets of Group IV following the transformation to Bynneman-Y1d in T. Supremacie STC3737 extended from mid-July through the first week of November. No evidence is present to indicate when the remaining seven sheets of A Hundreth (Dd-Ii, A) were printed during this period, but they represented

a minimal interruption in the printing of T. Supremacie STC3737 and probably were worked off when copy arrived, given the knowledge that early printers frequently worked on more than one book during a period in order to maintain an overall work flow. Long books such as STC3737 were of necessity susceptible to interruptions by short jobs of several sheets (such as Dd-Ii, A) which would be treated as single units of production. STC3737 very probably began printing before copy for STC11635c,d arrived; common sense suggests that Bynneman would have simply printed off the remainder of A Hundreth rather than beginning T. Supremacie if remaining copy for the former was in hand.