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In the Folio edition of Ben Jonson's Workes of 1616, the order of the plays as they appear in the volume does not fully coincide with the order of their being printed. That is, the first play, Every Man In His Humour, was printed in part after the sixth play in the volume, Volpone, was completed, and in larger part after the two remaining plays and a portion of Epigrammes were through the press. The general order of the printing of the plays has been known for some time: as long ago as 1957, Johan Gerritsen accounted for Every Man Out of His Humour being "quite the most heavily corrected [play] in the volume" because it was the first one Stansby printed.[1] In this paper, I intend to bring together some details about the printing of all of the plays, but with particular attention to that one.
Every Man Out and the next two plays to have been printed, Cynthia's Revels, and Poëtaster, all appear with two kinds of title-pages, "in compartment" and "plain."[2] The compartment is title-page border number 224 in McKerrow and Ferguson, first used by Stansby for these three Jonson plays.[3] The title-pages for Every Man Out are the most various of those for the three plays, and, when considered in conjunction with their conjugate pages, reflect what must have been a fair degree of uncertainty in Stansby's shop as he undertook the printing of the Jonson Folio. The title-pages themselves (sig. G1), as identified by Greg, appear in four variants, two in compartment
Unfortunately, the work of Herford and Simpson has impeded rather than advanced our understanding of the matter. Because they were convinced that the large-paper sheets of all of the gatherings of the Folio were printed after the small-paper sheets,[6] they made assumptions about the printing of sig. G6v that have proven to be misleading. This is compounded by their failure to understand fully the distinction between the corrected version and the reset one (H&S, textual notes to lines 103 — 146 of Every Man Out; IX, 55 — 56).[7] That large-paper sheets of the volume were not invariably the last to be printed has been demonstrated by Kevin Donovan in his study of the printing of the masques.[8] As to the distinction between the corrected and reset versions, there are variations that did not come to the attention of Herford and Simpson. For instance, in the first line of G6v the word "metaphor" appears in three different forms: original, "Metaphore"; corrected, "Metaphore"; reset, "Metaphore" with a swash "M",[9] the last two
They fail, therefore, to come to the conclusion that the penultimate line on the page should read (corrected, but not reset): "Squeeze out the humour of such spongie soules." And the reading that appears in their text is that of the inferior (H&S, "large-paper") reset version: "Squeeze out the humour of such spongie natures" (Induction, line 145). For a reason that they do not explain (it most likely is mere oversight), they reproduce the original and corrected form of "O, 'tis more than most ridiculous" (Induction, line 114)[10] rather than the reset form that, judging from their reliance on the authority of the large-paper version, they would have thought superior: "O,it is more then most ridiculous" (with no space between the comma and "it" in the reset). They declare that "For this play [Every Man Out] we have also collated Mr. H. L. Ford's 'A' copy on large paper" (IX, 53). However, the Ford copy is cited only in their accounting of quire G, none other; for G3.4 it is the sole source for variant readings. There are three, related, difficulties that inhere in this assessment. Why was the Ford copy not cited for any signature but G? Why do the Ford readings not agree with the other two "large-paper" readings cited by Herford and Simpson? Why are the Ford variants in G3.4 present in five small-paper copies, of twenty-three that I have recently examined, but not in the Grenville[11] or two additional large-paper (Clark and Huntington)? The three questions are answered in one explanation: the Ford copy was not, in fact, printed on large paper, which can be inferred from the physical evidence that Ford himself supplies and which can now be confirmed by an examination of the volume (see below, note 14). Ford seems to have judged that it was large-paper by size alone.[12] He describes his "premier copy," the one consulted by Herford and Simpson, in his Collation of the Ben Jonson Folios, 1616 — 31 — 1640, as measuring 11 ⅛ x 7 ⁷⁄₁₆˜.[13] But this is not "larger" than other small-paper copies; it is no taller
The question of why quire G (here particularly G1.6v) was reset provokes several possible answers, a couple of which will be entertained merely to dismiss them. It is possible that after the printing had begun it was decided that large-paper copies should be added to the small-paper; but this issue must have been long since decided, as large-paper stock would need to be acquired for the purpose, and, much more to the point, some large-paper sheets, for instance, G3.4, are printed with the original settings. A second reason for G1 being reset might be that originally there had been no provision for a title-page of Every Man Out with Stansby's name only in the imprint; but as will be seen below, this cannot be the case. The most obvious, and the most reasonable, answer is that Stansby, or Stansby and others, decided to enlarge the press-run. Evidence gathered through examining the variant title-pages and their conjugates can pretty well establish the printing order of the title-pages, and once that is established, conjecture about Stansby's practice can be narrowed. Until now there have been understood to be, in Greg's words, "four variant titles — — with and without a border and with and without Smethwick's name as publisher." Greg further observes:
In fact, there are two more variants than are set out by Greg or noticed by Herford and Simpson; that is, there are two distinctive states of plain, Stansby alone and two distinctive states of plain, Stansby for Smithwicke. The order is as follows:
- (1) in compartment, Stansby alone;
- (2) plain, Stansby alone;
- (3) plain, Stansby for Smithwicke;
- (4) plain, Stansby for Smithwicke ("Hor." in margin);
- (5) in compartment, Stansby for Smithwicke;
- (6) plain, Stansby alone.[17]
My evidence is derived from sixty-seven copies of the Folio which have title pages for Every Man Out (not all copies do[18]). Title-pages (1) (one copy[19]), (2) (three copies[20]), and (3) (nineteen copies) appear with the original (a) form of G6v. Title-page (4) appears only with the corrected (b) variant of G6v (six copies), as does title-page (5) (twenty-three copies). Title-page (6) appears only with the reset (c) variant of G6v (nine small-paper and all six of the large-paper copies that I have seen). If this sampling can be considered a representative one (I am aware that it may not be), and if the reset sheets do indeed reflect Stansby's increasing the size of the press-run (I shall present supplementary evidence in the next few paragraphs), we can estimate that it was enlarged by as much as twenty-five to thirty percent. First, the differences between title-pages (2) and (6) need to be explained, as do the differences between (3) and (4). Title-pages (3) and (4) are derived from (2). Title-page (6) is a resetting. The imprint of title-page (2) reads: "London, | Printed by William Stansby. | [rule] | M. DC. XVI." This imprint was altered to produce (3), in the following manner: most probably without being removed from the press, the chase was unlocked, the period after Stansby's name was removed (it would be strikingly inappropriate), the rule was lowered, and "for Iohn Swithwicke."[21] was inserted between Stansby's name and the rule; the original G6v was left unaltered.
There are three immediately recognizable differences between the two
Apparently at some time during the machining of quire I, it was decided that the press run should be made larger than originally intended, for no full quires of Every Man Out after I were printed short and only one third of quire I was. It may appear that two separate issues are involved here: first, the condition of there being original (and corrected original) and reset sheets in gatherings G, H, and I; second, the question that arises from that fact, "Why?" But the two issues are really one. The reset sheets exist. Where they exist offers a pretty good explanation of why. The most likely reason for their appearing in a significant number in the first three gatherings of the first play printed (but only sporadically in the rest of the volume) is that the press-run was augmented.
An examination of the running-titles, and thereby the skeletons, employed in the printing of Every Man Out provides evidence about the printing of quires G, H, and I. In quire G only G5v, G6, and G6v have running-titles. The other pages of the quire are devoted to an integral title leaf, preliminary matter (including the "Characters" of figures in the play), and the first page of the dramatic text. One running-title is used for the original
Because P3, in the final quire of Every Man Out, was machined before G5v, G6, and G6v, it appears that only after all of the play was printed did Stansby's men turn to resetting matter needed for the first quire, G. It is less clear when H and I3.4 were reset and machined, but some inferences can be drawn about them. The eight formes are set with the same two skeletons (one of them at one time altered), which have entirely new running-titles. It is the alteration of the one forme that provides some clues about the order of printing of reset H and I3.4. I shall call the once-altered skeleton "VI" and its running-titles "x" and "w." It appears in reset H three times, in the following configuration: 1(x).6v(w), 3(x).4v(w), 3v(w).4(x).[24] It must appear this way, if the skeleton remains intact, because the right side of the forme on the press must always be headed by w. In I3.4 it appears in both formes — — as 3(x).4v(w), but then, with the running-titles reversed, as 3v(x).4(w). The most reasonable assumption is that the shift of running-titles happened only once, either at the beginning or at the end of this group of formes. There is evidence to suggest that it happened at the end. A striking difference between the original I3 and the resetting is that in the latter the last line of the original is moved to the top of I3v. Because it is much more likely that a line would be dropped from the end of a page than that a line from the bottom of one page would be accidentally set at the top of the page
The evidence of the watermarks supports some of this conjecture, and provides grounds for a bit of further speculation. (In the discussion that follows, I employ numbers for watermarks that I have previously assigned; as any such numbers must be somewhat arbitrary, I have thought it not worthwhile to create "new" numbers for this essay). Paper with watermark 3 (two-handled pot with elongated letters O P, topped by grapes and flower) seems to have come into Stansby's shop (or, perhaps, merely began to be used) just as the last sheets of quire O were being machined, as 3 appears in one sheet (O1.6) of one copy of twenty-three. It then appears in P1.6 in all copies but one, and in subsequent quires until 2Z; it is in all five copies of reset G1.6. All reset sheets of G2.5 have either watermark 1 or 2, both being common throughout Every Man Out, but rarely present later in the volume. Also in all copies of the original G3.4 which I have noted, the watermark is either 1 or 2. In the reset G3.4, however, the watermark is 11. Except in seven copies of 2H3.4 (which I do not yet know how to account for), watermark 11 (two-handled pot with the letters TI[?], topped by grapes) does not appear until quire 3G, the fourth quire of The Alchemist. But G3.4 are the pages of "Characters," and nothing else — it would have been easy to print such a discrete portion of the quire (the pages do not even have running-titles) at any time. Thus, taking into consideration the evidence of the running-titles, it seems that G1.6 and 2.5 were set right after quire P, and that G3.4 was set at about the same time that the last two plays, The Alchemist and Catiline, were going through the press. Of the five copies I have referred to that have reset quire G, only four have reset quire H and I3.4. All of these four copies of quire H have yet another watermark (I have designated it as 37 [two-handled pot with the letters RUM, topped by grapes]), which I have not found elsewhere in the Folio. It is, therefore, of no particular use in determining when the reset quire was printed. However, all of the sheets of reset I3.4 have watermark 11, and because the skeleton that was newly composed for quire H was also employed in the machining of I3.4, it is reasonable to suppose that those four sheets were run off more or less together, probably at about the same time as G3.4.
When pages are present in the three states of original, corrected, and reset, as they are in the cases of G6v, H3v.4, and I3v.4, it will be found that the reset is based upon the corrected state. This can be seen particularly in punctuation marks that were introduced in the corrected state, such as the question mark after "this" on G6v, and the exclamation points after "above" and "edifice" on I4. It will also be found that the printer was often careless in his composition of the reset, whether it was set from the original or, if there was such, the corrected state. Here, for instance, are some obvious errors: on G4 (original and reset), from "Fungoso" to "Fungosa"; on H2 (original and reset), "Insula Fortunata" to "Insula, Fortunata"; on H3v (corrected and reset), "foode." to "food" (when the word unmistakably comes at the end of a sentence).
After Stansby's men had completed Every Man Out, they printed the following plays of the Folio, from Cynthia's Revels to Catiline, in the order in which they appear there. It is the coherence of that order, in conjunction with a brief disruption of it, that I wish to establish in this section of the essay. The plain title-pages for Cynthia's Revels are the same for both large-paper and small-paper and retain the imprint from title-page (6) of Every Man Out, which was left standing: "London, | Printed by William Stansby. | [rule] | M. DC. XVI." The imprint was retained intact for the large-paper title-pages of Poëtaster, the next play in the volume. For the small-paper plain copies it was modified to read: "London, | Printed by William Stansby, | for Matthew Lownes. | [rule] | M. DC. XVI.", with a comma substituted for the period following Stansby's name. In other words, the Stansby alone (which appears only in large-paper copies) imprint was first machined, then modified for the imprint with Lownes. Then, with the comma following Stansby's name still in place from the small-paper Poëtaster title-page, titles for Sejanus (both large- and small-paper) were machined, reading "London, | Printed by William Stansby, | [rule] | M. DC. XVI." For Volpone a new imprint was composed, with the following identifiable characteristics:[26] 1) "London" with a distinctive "dot" (no doubt caused by an air bubble when the letter was cast) near the bottom of the vertical of the letter "L"; 2) in Stansby a new "t", the horizontal no longer tilting up to the right; 3) a longer rule (fifty-two millimeters rather than forty), between Stansby's name and the date; 4) in the date, a new "X," with a bulge at the bottom of the left foot. This imprint was left standing for plays six and seven,[27] Volpone and Epicoene. It appears also on the title-page of Every Man In His Humour. As this imprint became altered during the printing of play eight, The Alchemist, we can infer that at least the first part (in fact, the first gathering) of Every Man In was printed about the same time as Volpone (which runs from 2O4 to 2X4v) and Epicoene (from 2X5 through 3D5v).
For well over thirty years Dr. Gerritsen has been aware that "the first quire [of Every Man In] was printed off roughly concurrently with the first quires of Epicoene."[28] Gerritsen bases his conclusions on evidence he derived chiefly from the headlines in the volume, although how, precisely, he does not explain. Other evidence, that of the watermarks, can be brought to bear, although it is only somewhat helpful in determining when quire A of Every Man In may have been printed. I have made a chart of all the watermarks (there are more than three dozen of them) in twenty-two small-paper copies of the Folio. A watermark I have designated 12 (two-handled pot with the letters PLS, topped with grapes) appears the most frequently of any in the Folio, but, except in Every Man In, not before the third play, Cynthia's Revels. Watermark 5 (one-handled pot with the letters OLC[?] and the date 1613) appears several places in the Folio, but most frequently in the fifth play, Poëtaster, then in Epicoene and the first two quires of The Alchemist; it also appears very often in A3.4 of Every Man In. Both the imprints and the watermarks, then, are consistent with Gerritsen's opinion about the printing of quire A. The evidence of the watermarks is much more compelling (which is just as well because, so far as I know, there isn't much other evidence) as it concerns the printing of the last five quires of Every Man In. My watermarks 6 and 7 (difficult to describe — each in its own way a misshapen pot) do not appear at all in the Folio until Epigrammes,[29] which follows the last play, Catiline. Those two watermarks appear often in the last five quires of Every Man In, though never in the first.
The imprint of Volpone, Epicoene, and Every Man In appears in the title-page of The Alchemist in some copies of the Folio. However, part way through the printing of that play the period following Stansby's name went missing,[30] perhaps pulled out by an inking ball, and is not to be found in most copies. For Catiline, the imprint was somewhat changed. A new period (somewhat flattened on the bottom) was installed after Stansby's name, the "y" at the end of Stansby's name slipped down (at the same time that the period was replaced?), and the space between the lines (the one above "London" and the one between Stansby's name and the date) was reduced to thirty-four millimeters from thirty-nine. However, the "L" with the distinctive "dot" was retained, as was the "X" with the bulge at the bottom of the left foot. There are four printed title-pages in the remainder of the volume, for Epigrammes (with which The Forrest appears), for Part of the King's Entertainment, for the Entertainment . . . at Althorpe, and for Masques at Court. Stansby's name appears on none of these title-pages. All bear the imprint: "London, | [rule] | M. DC. XVI.", which small fragment seems to have been left standing for the printing of all four.
Stansby's men, it would seem, left standing as much matter as they could for the printing of the volume, even if that matter amounted to very little, perhaps no more than a few words. Their practice has proven useful for this study, as the evidence uncovered through a close look at the standing type confirms the order of the printing of the plays. A good example is the fragment "The Author B. I.," which remains unchanged on all of the plain title-pages from Every Man Out to Epicoene and Every Man In. Depending upon the heaviness of the inking, the serifs at the bottom of the letter "A" in this bit of standing type are flat at the base and are scarcely separated at the middle of the letter; even when the inking is relatively light, there is usually a "shadow" between them. Different type is used for "The Author B. I." on the title-pages of The Alchemist and Catiline, which can be determined also by the letter "A." The "A" of "Author" in the title-pages for the last two plays has serifs which are clearly separated and which have slight, but quite discernible, curves in the base. The practice of leaving small portions of type standing began early on in the printing of the Folio, but not, apparently, from the outset. The dramatis personae page for Every Man Out is headed by "The Names of the Actors" (sig. G2v); this is altered for all of the following plays (including Every Man In) to "The Persons of the Play," obviously altogether different. Not so obvious are the differences between various versions of the latter. For Cynthia's Revels, "The Persons" is distinguished by a "dot" about one-third down the vertical of the letter "T," very much similar to the "dot" in the letter "L," discussed above. One can say with a fair degree of certainty that the type was distributed, for the same distinctive letter appears in "THE END" at the conclusion of the play. A different "T" is found in "The Persons" of Poëtaster. This one is not particularly distinctive, but it is clearly different from the "T" of "The Persons" of Sejanus, in which the left part of the horizontal slants slightly downward and the right part wants the downturning serif which, more often than not, is a part of an upper-case "T." Such a serif is to be found in "the Persons" for Volpone and for the plays printed afterward, including Every Man In. Indeed the type seems to have been left standing for the printing of the last four plays.[31]
There are several examples of the same standing type being used for the final pages of some plays.[32] Details of type face, of punctuation, and of upper- and lower-case type vary enough that patterns can be detected in the printing of these final pages; one such pattern provides further evidence that the last part of Catiline was printed within some proximity of the last part of Every Man In. The heading that was fashioned for the final page of Every Man Out became the model for all of the rest of the plays in the volume: "This Comicall Satyre [or 'Comoedy' or 'Tragoedy'] was first |
Except for the heading, after Volpone was printed, most of the type for the final page was distributed. The second element of Epicoene, which had been performed by the Children of the Revels was, of course, different from that of Volpone. Although for The Alchemist its wording was the same as that for Sejanus and Volpone, one can easily see that the type is different because the "M" of "Majesties" is not a swash. The final page of Catiline was set entirely new. The heading reads: "This Tragoedy was first | Acted, in the Yeere | 1611." The lower-case "a" for "acted" in all earlier plays is now upper-case. The second element is: "By the Kings Maiesties | Servants." "Kings" is in roman type and a swash "M" has again been employed. There is yet another piece of evidence that the entire page has been newly set. The last element on each of the final pages is a single line of type,
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