he rightly reports missing, the introduction by Nicholas Trotte. He adds the erroneous statement that in both the "Devonshire and Garrick exemplars there are cancels here and there pasted over passages where these slips of the press occur." He ascribes these corrections to "the discovery of mistakes in the old printed copy after the sheets were worked." The sheets of K are cut out of their original binding and carefully mounted on paper of the same quality as that on which the title-page and introduction have been transcribed. Page 30 of these leaves shows the water-mark, "C. Wilmott, 1804", which precludes the possibility of transcription prior to that date. The play, thus mounted, is bound in leather with a number of other plays similarly treated, the back of the volume bearing the letters in gilt monogram, "J. P. K." unquestionably the initials of the famous actor, J. P, Kemble, who was the owner of the book prior to its transfer to the Duke of Devonshire. VI. Textual Corrections Slips. The present text is a remarkable one. It is espec ially remarkable in that it presents the rare phenomenon of wafers pasted over certain passages. These wafers, or slips, together with their under-readings, are drawn up below. for comparison: (Top-reading:) 1. Where Kings impose too much the Realme enuies. (Under-reading:) Where Kings impose too much the commons grudge. (II. ii. 65). (Top-reading :) 2. The first Art in a Kingdome is, to scorne He cannot rule The Enuie of the Realme. Must I to gaine renowne, incurre my plague? (Top-reading): 5. That for the horror great and outrage fell. (Under-reading:) That for thy horror etc. (Top-reading:) 6. Yet sinke in surge, ere they arriue to Rode. (Under-reading:) Yet sinke in surge, ere they arriue to hode. (Top-reading:) (I. i. 29). (V. i. 144). 7. Whose refuge lies in chance, what does he not? (Under-reading:) Whose refuge lies in Chaunce, what does he not? (Top-reading:) (I. v. 75). 8. By right or wrong, or conquests gaind with blood. (Under-reading:) By right a wrong, or conquests gaind with blood. (II. iv. 51). This array of corrections would seem to emphasize Collier's statement, that the Garrick copy in the British Museum was "printed with unusual care".1) Mr. Collier also characterizes the passages as "objectionable", but fails to give his reasons; nor does he make it clear why the "principal author", under whose "superintendence", he holds, the "dramatic composition" was printed, was constrained to exercise such "unusual care". The inference from Mr. Collier's language would be that the "principal author" made the corrections for purely rhetorical, or typographical, reasons; and, in the absence of direct evidence to the contrary, this inference may be as near the facts as any. The corrections do not appear in the Kemble quarto, now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. Their nonappearance admits of two theories in explanation: 1) The copy, K, either was never corrected by the insertion of slips; or 1) Dodsley-Hazlitt: Old English Plays. Vol. IV. p. 252. 2) The slips have since been removed from it. The former postulate seems to me, after a close examination of the text and the paper, the more likely one, as there remain no signs of mutilation — no paste, no spots in K, so designated from its original possessor, J. P. Kemble. Let us proceed to a critical comparison of these slips with each other and with their setting in the text. We note 1) that of the above list, nos. (1), (2), and (3) are pasted down only at one end, and can be lifted at the other so as to disclose the under-reading. The under-sides of the slips, as well as the leaf, were at one time mucilaged. There can be no doubt that they were removed by a curious hand perhaps in the interests of literary criticism by Mr. Collier himself! 2) As regards the motive for correction, we may say that the substitutions in (4), (5), (6), (7) and (8) are, on the face of them, of a purely typographical nature, and, hence, of no further consequence. The substitution of the word Fyrste for Second (ex. 4); of the letter e for y to read the for thy (ex. 5); of R for h to read Rode for hode (ex. 6); of a for au to read chance for Chaunce (ex. 7); of or for a to read right or wrong for right a wrong (ex. 8) — could hardly have been the result of political or religious censorship on the part of the Privy Council an hypothesis which affords wide scope for the play of the imagination. The Privy Council, Sidney Lee tells us (D. N. B.: Art. on Holinshed) displayed great censorial activity at the time of the birth of our drama - having, in 1586, mercilessly "castrated" the then published edition of Holinshed's Chronicle, and for "no obvious reasons" whatever. We know from other sources that they kept a sharp eye on all publications, with some of which they dealt in no delicate manner. I must confess to having been attracted by this hypothesis, and, I believe, not without reason, to such a degree as to have spent some time in the effort to transform the "airy nothing" into fact. The effort has failed, and I remain on the negative and less fanciful side of the question. 3) In regard to the total absence of cancels and slips in K, I can only say that this book never was revised, no doubt because its original possessor was not identical with the original possessor of G, and was satisfied with an uncorrected text. 4) It would appear, then, that the cancels and slips, rare and puzzling though they be, are per se of no particular importance. 5) A detailed and exhaustive textual study by Dr. J. W. Cunliffe1) shows to what a remarkable extent Hughes drew upon his model, Seneca. He has proven the first two acts of "The Misfortunes of Arthur" to be almost literal translations of the sententious Latin rhetorician more literal. indeed, than the then famous translation of Seneca's "Tenne Tragedies" (1581) by Heywood, Nuce, Neville & Co.2). Among these "handfulls of tragical speaches", as Nash sharply taunts, is to be found the first half of example (2) cited above: a) Must I to gaine renowne, incurre my plague? Or hoping prayse sustaine an exiles life? But this is not all, and herein lies the importance of the case: Not only these two lines, but those on the slip that partially conceals them b) The first Art in a Kingdome is, to scorne The enuie of the Realme belong to the "handfulls" that our lawyer-dramatist had filched from Seneca's store. 1) The Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy, p. 145. 2) Printed for the Spenser Society, 1887. |