University of Virginia Library

§6. Quire B

A. PHASE I

The early phase of quire B presents one significant difficulty:

TABLE 13. Variants in quire B, Phase I

Only three pages show variant states in this phase. Those on B1r are:

1a1 heading wholly in italic

1a2 heading reset with characters' names in roman

• type relatively undamaged
• first letters of ll. 7 up and 9 up are damaged

We can be reasonably certain that this is the correct order because the type
damage does not occur during state 1a1, and the reset heading follows the normal
convention by giving proper names in a contrasting type style.

The variants in B3v-4r, in the backing forme, involve commas. 24 Neither
state is obviously the earlier, but the direction of the change is less interesting at
this point than its confused relationship with the outer forme: the early and late

states of the outer forme each occur with both states of the inner forme. The
distribution of surviving copies is as shown below:

TABLE 14. Distribution of selected variants of quire B in Phase I

If, after printing the outer forme, the printer followed a normal turn of the
heap of sheets that contained B1r, we would expect the changes on B3v-4r, in the
backing forme, also to follow an orderly progression from early to late. We saw
this pattern in quire A. In contrast, the distribution of states in Phase I of quire
B shows a sort of "countercurrent eddy", indicated by the shaded cells above.
It appears that a disorderly stack-turn took place. To understand this concept,
first recall that a normal print run of a forme might produce several hundred
sheets, yielding a thick pile of damp paper with the last-printed sheets on top.
To preserve the same order and orientation of sheets going through the press
on the perfecting run, the pile had to be inverted end-to-end. Since the pile was
too bulky to turn as a unit, the workman had to transfer it in several handfuls,
inverting each one onto the new stack.

Suppose instead that the workman carelessly transferred one handful of sheets
straight across without turning it. This would produce a stratum of sheets with
the printing facing the wrong way. We would expect the pressman, when working
down the pile and finding this mistake, to utter a curse, turn the affected sheets
to align with the others, and go on working. But he might also utter a curse and
start picking up the sheets from the opposite end, using a slightly different motion
to place them on the tympan. The pinholes—normally positioned slightly
asymmetrically—would help prevent mishaps in perfecting, and the pressman
might enjoy the little bit of variety until reaching the underlying layer of correctly
oriented sheets. This seems to be what happened in Phase I of quire B. Let us
use our sample of the nineteen copies of that phase to stand for the entire first
printing of this gathering. The machining of the outer forme (containing B1r)
produced a heap like the one on the left below, with the later states on top.

If we now back up these partially garbled sheets with the inner forme containing
B3v-4r, which begins with state 1a1 and switches to state 1a2 about half-way
through, we get the observed distribution of variants (table 15).

A stack turn with handful B transferred without flipping is the only scenario
that yields the observed results if we assume the printer started the perfecting
run at the top of the stack and worked his way straight through. Our thought
experiment also shows that state iai of B3v-4r most likely came first. If state 1a2
had been earlier, we would have to hypothesize a second turning of the garbled
stack—this time correctly done—yielding the inverse of the first column above.
The reader may verify that this does not yield the observed distribution of states.
We cannot change the boundaries of group B without creating a conflict with the
observed combinations, so that cohort must represent the survivors of a manageable
number of sheets that the worker was comfortable picking up with two
hands. It is tempting to extrapolate from our nineteen-copy sample to estimate
the total number that were printed in Phase I. If group B represents one "grab",
the total first printing of the quire might have contained four roughly equal
handfuls of damp sheets, each of which in ToP measured about 41 by 31 cm. 25 A
practical trial might provide an estimation of the edition size. However, it proves
difficult to locate a source of poor-quality, lightweight, handmade paper with

TABLE 15. Distribution of copies resulting from anomalous transfer of handful B

similar characteristics to that used in ToP; and I have been no more successful in
getting usable data from present-day fine printers regarding their paper-turning
habits. It turns out that there are a host of variables that make it impossible even
to approximate an upper limit on the edition size by this means.

It should make us slightly uncomfortable that B1r state 1a2b is absolutely
coextensive with group A. The last handful (or more likely two) appears to have
contained only that state, which occurs nowhere else; and state 1a2a is found
only in handful B. If my analysis above is correct, and if further copies of ToP
were to come to light, one of them might contain B1r:1a2a combined with a
later state of B3v-4r.

B. QUIRE B, PHASES II-IV, OUTER FORME

The next phases of quire B are so complex that it is necessary to analyze the
two formes separately.

After Phase I, three of the pages of B(o) were reset and one (B3r) was reprinted
with a new skeleton. Phase II's only variants occur on B4v (in states 2a1 –3) in the
passage "ayre, ... with an artificiall bellowes coold". The last word also appears

TABLE 16. Variants in quire B outer forme, Phases II-IV

as "cool" and "coo". Neither reading makes as much sense as "coold" (2a1), and
the variants probably result from a two-stage accidental loss of letters from the
end of the line. Frisket slip is not a suspect here because there are no intermediate
states—the letters are either completely present or completely lacking.

For Phase IIIa, all of the pages have new skeletons. Page B4v state 2b2,
found uniquely in a copy at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge (Z.59), presents
a problem because the page number has shifted horizontally. However, the type
appears to be the same and the page is unchanged in other respects, so reimposition
is not likely to be the cause. If looseness in the line caused the shift, we
would also expect slightly different spacing among the three characters of the
page number, but we do not see this either. It remains an unexplained problem,
but a minor one.

In the discussion of quire A, I identified a point within Phase I at which press-
work was interrupted, but the other formes of the book from that phase did not
show a similar hiatus. Sub-Phases IIa and IIb were in effect separate printings of
quire A, with both formes showing changes. Quire B is a slightly different case.
Again, it appears that a more urgent job interrupted the printing, this time during
Phase III of the outer forme. The delay was long enough that the type-pages
were stripped and probably tied up. After the other job played through, printing
of B(o) resumed with a new skeleton, including a new arrangement of acorns on
B1r. (I have not been able to determine whether the direction lines were reset as
well—they are closely similar.) These re-imposed copies constitute Phase IIIb.
However, both of these impositions of the outer forme occur with identical states
of the inner forme. The two sub-phases of the outer forme seem to have gone
through a single perfecting run. 26 Apart from this one forme—and a couple of
other small variants which I will discuss in §11–14—these five copies resemble
the twelve others from Phase III.

The following corrections demonstrate that Phase IIIb indeed followed
Phase IIIa:

TABLE 17. Variants in quire B, Phases IIIa,b

In Phase IV of this forme, a few things are of interest:

• On B1r, the page number wanders a bit horizontally over the 15th pair
  of acorns.
• Likewise, on B2v, the stem of page number "4" can point to the first letter
  of "the" below, to the "o" in the preceding word, or anywhere in-between.
• In this phase, B3r picks up the first three lines of text (in a new setting)
  from the following page, relieving some crowding on the latter.
• On B4V, the four flush-right italic lines have been raided and are reset in
  smaller (pica) size. The two centered italic lines on the same page are unaffected,
  perhaps because it was not worth the trouble to get at them. On this page also
  the page number is horizontally unstable. This example of wandering, along with
  items 1 and 2 above, are among many in ToP that demonstrate that lockups on
  the press bed must have been much less rigid than Joseph Moxon's descriptions
  would lead us to expect.

C. QUIRE B, PHASES II-III, INNER FORME

TABLE 18. Variants in forme B(i), Phases II-III

The inner forme of quire B is even more perplexing than the outer one.
Phase II begins with a complete resetting of all four pages. Shortly afterward,

B4r alone acquires a reset skeleton (state 2b), which persists into Phase III. The
direction of the change from 2a to 2b is confirmed by a textual correction and
progressive damage to line 7 during state 2b. For only one page of a forme to
change its skeleton is puzzling enough. But it also occurs against a background
of changes to its forme-mates B1v-2r which do not develop in consistent directions.
These variants are:

B1v: The "V" beginning line 10 is more or less displaced downward, or is
entirely absent. Where it is absent, the "D" from two lines down drifts up into
the vacant space.

• B2r: 1. St. Catharine's College (Cambridge) Z.55 shows a unique setting of
  the page number. The number "3" comes from a different font than that found
  elsewhere in the book, being rounded and with the upper loop noticeably smaller
  than the lower. It is evenly spaced between undamaged parentheses. All the other
  copies have the usual narrow "3" with loops about the same size, and one or
  both of the page-number parentheses are either damaged or fouled with ink. This
  number was apparently not locked up tight, and it can fall anywhere from close
  to the left parenthesis to centered between the two. The direction line appears
  to contain the same type as does the St. Catharine's copy.
• In some exemplars, the right ends of lines 1 and/or 4 creep upwards by
  varying degrees.
• The comma ending line 6 prints either normally or as a blob.
• A stray bit of metal resembling a hyphen may show in the empty space
  between lines 6 and 7 and below the "na" of "nature" in line 4.

A tabulation of these features shows some correlation among certain manifestations
of variant 1 above (a bit of dirt on the right parenthesis at about 2 o'clock),
variant 2 (both lines displaced), and the blobby comma in variant 3. But other
characteristics do not line up, either with each other or with the amount of type
damage on B4r. Most of the features are of a transient nature and could be
reversible: for instance, the wayward "V" on B1v could drift, fall out, and be
replaced, so late copies might look like early ones. The loose page number with
its parentheses could have fallen apart near the end of the run, and all three types
could have been reset to produce the unique manifestation in the St. Catharine's
copy. The stray metal in variant 5 could have been slightly raised in the forme
throughout this phase, but would print only when sufficient pressure

Excessive attention to these details might not be either productive or healthy,
but it is not so easy to dismiss the skeleton change on B4r early in Phase II (the
transition from state 2a to 2b), mentioned above. Because there is no evidence
of changes on the other three pages of the forme at that point, it presents a challenge
to my theory that arbitrary page-number changes are signs of work stop-
pages. It is another occurrence I will have to leave unexplained.

D. QUIRE B, PHASE IV, INNER FORME; QUIRE B RECAPITULATION

The final phase (IV) of forme B(i) shows a resetting of all the pages. For no
obvious reason, the four-line roman-face stage direction on B3v beginning "The
Gentleman ..." is now set in pica, one step smaller than the surrounding text.

TABLE 19. Forme B(i), Phase IV

Combining all that we have discussed about both formes of quire B generates
table 20, which is puzzling in its fragmentation and necessarily evasive about
correlations among certain states below a certain level of detail.

TABLE 20. Synopsis of variants in quire B

Nevertheless, it is possible to discern two events, initiating Phases II and IV,
that clearly interrupted work on the entire quire. These resulted in the resetting
or reimposition of almost all the pages. The outer forme underwent two more
skeleton changes on its own, introducing Phases IIIa and IIIb.