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II
The evidence to be adduced here first may be described as bibliographical or textual. Let us begin with a modest item. There is general agreement that the 1594 quarto of Titus Andronicus bears all the signs of having been printed from "foul papers," an authorial manuscript that left several ambiguities to be resolved before the script was performed.[10] The call in an early stage direction for the entry of "others as many as can be" was cited by Greg as a typical "author's direction" of the "permissive or petitory" kind.[11] In the same sentence Greg listed "& others as many as may be" in Peele's Edward I (1593). The formula has come to seem characteristic of the authorial foul papers of the age. But in fact these are almost certainly the only two instances of the entry of "others as many as can/may be" in the whole of English Renaissance drama 1576 — 1642.[12]
This may seem a "poor likelihood" to build a case on. But the speech headings and stage directions in the first Act of Titus Andronicus show more extensive traces of the practices of Peele. The quarto begins with a three-line entry direction: "Enter the Tribunes and Senatours aloft: And then enter Saturninus and his followers at one dore, and Bassianus and his followers, with Drums and Trumpets." Then the first six speech headings (sigs. A3 — A4) are all centred over the speeches to which they apply. Three are for Saturninus and two for Bassianus, and one has "Marcus Andronicus with the Crowne." This last-quoted phrase, which follows an eight-line speech from Saturninus and a nine-line speech from Bassianus, serves as a combination stage direction and speech heading. Editors disagree over whether Marcus has entered with the other tribunes at the beginning of the scene and now rises to speak, displaying
Nothing comparable to the mix of formulas and oddities in the headings and directions of the opening pages of Titus Andronicus can be found in any other Shakespeare play — in the First Folio (1623) or in any of the twenty-two substantive quartos, "good" and "bad."[14] In the Folio, a play's first speech heading is either centred in the column or placed at the left of the column over the large ornamental letter that begins the dialogue. In many quartos, also, the first speech heading is centred, again usually to avoid an initial ornamental letter or specially large one. In the quarto of Othello the speech heading for Montano is centred after the carefully marked and spaced head to Act 2. In both Folio and quartos, centred headings or directions may introduce songs, poems, or letters that are read aloud. For instance, in The Winter's Tale "Enter Autolicus singing" (F, Bb3) is followed immediately by the text of the song, and in Measure for Measure the Duke asks the Provost to read him a letter he is carrying ("Pray you let's heare."), the heading "The Letter" follows, and the Provost proceeds to read it ("Whatsouer you may heare to the contrary . . .") without having been given an additional speech heading (F, G2v). In 1 Henry IV, 2.3 begins with "Enter Hotspur solus reading a letter," and there is no speech heading before he reads and comments (Q, C4v); and in The Merchant of Venice there is no speech heading for Bassanio before he reads out Antonio's letter, italicized in the text (Q, F3v). Directions for noises offstage may incorporate the words spoken, as in Julius Caesar: "Cry within, Flye, flye, flye" (F, ll 5v). Likewise, crowd scenes sometimes include such directions as the following: "They all cry, Martius, Martius, cast vp their Caps and Launces . . ." (Coriolanus, F, aa4); "Enter one crying a Miracle" and "and they follow, and cry, A Miracle" (2 Henry VI, F, m5v — 6); "Warwicke and the rest cry all, Warwicke, Warwicke, and set vpon the Guard, who flye, crying, Arme, Arme, Warwicke and the rest following
A choric figure — the Chorus in Henry V, Gower in Pericles, Rumour in the induction to 2 Henry IV — may enter and speak without a normal speech heading. The few other examples of stage directions that also serve as speech headings tend to fall at the beginning of a scene. Richard III opens with "Enter Richard Glocester, solus" (Q, A2) and has "Enter a Scriuener with a paper in his hand" followed by the scrivener's soliloquy, which occupies the whole of 3.6 (Q, G4). In Troilus and Cressida 2.3 begins with "Enter Thersites solus" (Q, D4v), and Thersites delivers an unprefixed soliloquy, and in the same play Achilles speaks without a speech heading after "Enter Achilles with Myrmidons" begins 5.7 (Q, L4). In the "bad quarto" of Romeo and Juliet Paris speaks immediately after the direction that opens 1.2, "Enter Countie Paris, old Capulet" (Q 1597, B2), but a short intervening speech by Montague has been omitted. The same quarto has "Enter Fryer with a Lanthorne" followed by Friar Lawrence's unprefixed speech; this occurs within 5.3 (Q 1597, K2). And in the doubtful quarto of Richard III two of the eleven Ghosts who address Richard and Richmond do so without a speech heading: "Enter the ghost of Lady Anne his wife" (Q, L4), "Enter the Goast of Buckingham" (Q, L4v). No speech heading follows the direction in Henry VIII, 2.4: "The Queene makes no answer, rises out of her Chaire, goes about the Court, comes to the King, and kneeles at his Feete. Then speakes" (F, v2v), which suffices to introduce a very long speech.
Nearly all these exceptional cases fall into recognizable categories, and the remainder seem due to "bad quarto" carelessness. Nowhere do we encounter such a combination of anomalies as in the opening scene of Titus Andronicus: (a) a series of centred speech headings, (b) entries (as of the Captain and Lavinia and possibly Marcus) that also substitute for speech headings and occur within the scene, and (c) three uses of the formula ". . . speaks" or "they . . . say" introducing un-prefixed speeches. Even the use of the phrase "and Titus speakes" to announce a prefixed speech in Titus Andronicus, A4, is highly unusual. Besides the example in Henry VIII, cited at the end of the preceding paragraph, the good Shakespearean texts yield only "which Prospero observing, speakes" at the end of a long direction concerning the masque in The Tempest (F, B2v). The "bad quartos" of 2 Henry VI (The Contention) and 3 Henry VI (The True Tragedy) each have one example of a stage direction ending ". . . and speakes" (Q, H1v; O, C8). Otherwise, none of the Shakespeare texts has a direction ending in this fashion, whether or not a prefix follows. And, if we exclude the instance in Titus Andronicus, the specific verb "say" (or "says" or "saith") is never used either within or at the end of a stage direction in a Shakespearean text.[15]
The centring of the headings for Bassianus and Saturninus may not reflect the manuscript copy; it may have been a product of the printing-house. The compositor centres speech headings again on I2, where he is obviously wasting space. Even so, there is some evidence that Peele began his manuscripts in the same way, and the other Titus Andronicus anomalies are all common in quartors of his plays.[16] Edward I (1593) begins with a three-line entry direction, and then the centred heading "The Queen Mother," introducing a ten-line speech; after the lords have exited, "Manet Queene Mother" is centred and she continues a very long speech. The following directions immediately precede unprefixed speeches: "The Friar and Guenthian sing: Lluellen speakes to them" (B3v); "Then Lluellen spieth Elinor and Mortimer, and saieth this" (D4); "Mortimer solus" (E1); "Enter Friar" and "Frier lies downe" (E3v); "Enter Iohn Balioll, King of Scots with his traine" (F3); "Potter strikes," "Frier strikes," "Frier kneeles," and "Mortimer kneeles" (F3); "Gloster and Ione hand in hand" (G1); "Longshanks kisses them both and speaks," ". . . Bishop speakes to her in her bed," and "Queene Elinor shee kisses him" (H4); "After the showe . . . Longshanks speaketh" (H4v); "Enter Versses" (I1v); "Enter Queene alone" (I2); "Enter David" and "Enter Souldiers" (I3); "Enter Ione of Acone" (L2). Most of these directions are centred, most fall within a scene, not at its beginning, and the speeches thus introduced range from one to ten lines in length.[17]
In David and Bethsabe (1599), D2, the direction "Dauid in his gowne walking sadly. To him Nathan" introduces an unprefixed speech of eleven lines by David, who ends "But what saith Nathan to his lord the king?" The reply is preceded by both a centred direction, "Nathan to David" and a prefix. On D4v "Enter Dauid with Ioah, Abyssus, Cusay, with drum and ensigne against Rabba" introduces an unprefixed nine-line speech by David. On G3 there is an entry (without "Enter"), "Absalon, Amassa, with all his traine," and Absalon has a long speech, after which follow the directions "Exeunt" and "The battell, and Absalon hangs by the haire" (G3v), and then Absalon speaks sixteen lines without a speech heading. And on G4 "Enter fiue or sixe souldiers" does duty as a heading for a twelve-line speech by one of them.
The Arraignment of Paris (1584) has Pallas and Venus read without speech headings: "Pallas reades" and "Venus reades" (B3v), and "Paris oration to the Councell of the gods" (D3) is unprefixed. These omissions of the normal speech heading are of the exceptional kind countenanced by Shakespeare. But a link with the first Act of Titus Andronicus is provided by the many stage directions ending in ". . . speakes" or ". . . speaketh." There are eleven altogether (A4, A4v, B2v, B3, C1, C2, C3, D2, D4v, E3, E4v). The frequent entry of characters without the word "Enter," as in "Paris and Oenone"
The ". . . speakes" or ". . . speaketh" or ". . . saith" formula is used again by Peele in The Battle of Alcazar (1594) — six times to introduce the Presenter's speeches. The omission of any speech headings for this figure is in line with Shakespearean practice, but the repeated indications that he "speaks" are not. The Old Wives' Tale (1595) has nothing relevant except the centred speech heading for "Anticke" after the initial entry direction.
Even the stagecraft indicated by some of the directions seems characteristic of Peele. Titus Andronicus is the only play in the Shakespeare canon that begins with an entry "aloft" followed immediately by entries (at separate doors) onto the main platform, and that proceeds with dialogue between characters on the two levels, and movement up and down. David and Bethsabe opens in a similar fashion, with David "above" viewing Bethsabe below and calling on Cusay to enter at the upper level and then descend in order to fetch Bethsabe to him. In the next scene "Ioab speakes aboue," "Enter Cusay beneath," and Joab calls on Cusay to "come vp" to join him, which he does.
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