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VI
The reconstruction of the printing of A Hundreth provides a firm basis for editorial decisions toward a critical edition. Bynneman and Smith essentially produced a bibliographical record of the author's evolving concept of his collection of texts. Gascoigne began the project with the two plays and concluded it with an explicit reference to them in "The Printer to the Reader." Despite the intermediate changes in his plan, the two plays are an integral component of the book. A key stage occurred when Gascoigne halted the separate publication of the two plays in February. Why Smith agreed to this is puzzling since a division of copy into two books cost about the same to print and he could have begun realizing a return in February. In any event, a critical edition must include the two plays, but in the order representing the latest stage of Gascoigne's plan—after the four sub-texts of A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres. The minor problem of the original "The contents" can be resolved by moving this text to the textual notes with appropriate comment. It should be preserved since the bibliographical information is quite important. The insertion of the "De profundis" under its orphaned sub-title needs no defense: if Gascoigne's comment in "Phylomene" can be believed, it was a quite old composition and existed at the time printer's copy was prepared. The placement of the misplaced editorial link (Ii1) is clearly a problem: its location in A Hundreth may signify the order of composition of "Dan Bartholmew," but Bynneman was responsible for placing it in Ii1 rather than after the concluding link, where such corrections normally were inserted. It seems reasonable to put it in the proper location with a textual note including the correction notice. Finally, the modern reader responds to the extratextual components of graphic layout and titling just as did the Elizabethan. Prouty's duplication of the end-of-text settings at the junctions of segments of manuscript copy (see his "V" format and flowers in p. 106, corresponding to 2M3, and the flowers in p. 218, corresponding to Cc4v) illustrates the incorrect impression conveyed by the transmission of a printer's errors into a modern edition. The editorial prose should be set continuously to signify the unbroken sequence of sub-texts. Similarly, the original running-titles ought to be amended and appear over their related sub-texts. It also seems desirable in a critical edition to indicate marginally the original page breaks.
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