INTRODUCTION A. EDITIONS OF THE PLAY. 1. Collations and Descriptions. THE earliest extant text of Epicone is in vol. 1 of the First Folio of Ben Jonson's collected works, printed in 1616. The only available quarto of Epicane bears a date four years later, 1620. The play is reprinted in vol. 1 of the Second Folio of Jonson's works, 1640, and in the Third Folio, 16921. In a duodecimo volume issued by H. Hills about 1700, Epicane is reprinted from the Third Folio. During the centuries that follow there are many reprints. A booksellers' edition of Jonson appeared in 1716; Epicane (dated 1717) was reprinted in 1739 and 1768. A twovolume edition, printed at Dublin in 1729, contains, among its eight plays, Epicane reprinted from the Third Folio. Peter Whalley edited the comedy in his edition of 1756. George Colman adapted it for the Georgian stage, printing it in 1776. John Stockdale reprinted Whalley's text and notes in a publication of the plays of Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher, 1811. William Gifford's edition of Jonson was published in 1816, and again in 1846; it was reissued with some additions by Lieut.-Col. Francis Cunningham in 1871, and again in 18752. There is an unimportant reprint of Gifford's text of Epicone in Barry Cornwall's one-volume edition of Jonson, 1838; another in Ben Jonson's Plays and Poems, edited by Henry Morley in his 1 For collations of these folios, cf. Poetaster, ed. H. S. Mallory (Yale Studies in English XXVII), New York, 1905. 2 For collations of 1717, W, G, and C-G, cf. The Alchemist, ed. C. M. Hathaway (Yale Studies in English XVII), New York, 1903. Universal Library, 1885; another, with few variations, in the third of the three volumes devoted to Jonson in the Mermaid Series, 1895; and another in Ben Jonson's Plays and Poems, printed by George Newnes, London, 1905. There is, finally, an adaptation of the play by Mrs. Richardson, printed and sold by Charles W. Sever, Cambridge, Mass., 1895. The statement that the earliest available text of Epicone is the Folio of 1616 raises the long-mooted question of earlier quartos. There exists a certain amount of evidence pointing to the publication of the play at dates closely following its appearance on the stage in 160. In the first place, there are two entries of its publication in quarto, in the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, before the printing of the folio. The first is vol. 3. 444 [200 b of Arber's Transcript]: John Browne [See p. 498.] 20mo Septembris (1610). Entred for their Copye vnder th[e h]andes of Sir GEORGE The second entry is ibid. 3. 498. [226 v]: Walter. Burre | See p. 444. 28 Septembris (1612). Entred for his copie by assignment from John Browne and consent of the Wardens in full Court holden this Day |. A booke called the Commodye of the Silent Woman' vja. To these entries Gifford makes reference in his Introduction to Epicane, Jonson's Works 3. 326: 'The Silent Woman was printed in quarto with this motto: Ut sis tu similis Cæli, Byrrhique latronum, Non ego sim Capri, neque Sulci. Cur metuas me? and went through several editions. I have one dated 1620. The Companion to the Playhouse mentions another, printed in 1609 (as does Whalley in the margin of his copy), which I have not been able to discover; the earliest which has fallen in my way bearing date 1612. All these are exclusive of the folio 1616.' The notice in the Companion to the Playhouse is of little value, as it contains no evidence that the writer ever saw the quarto of which he speaks briefly in vol. I: 'Epicone, or The filent Woman. Com. by Ben Jonfon, 4to. 1609.This is accounted one of the best Comedies extant, and is always acted with universal Applause.' The references to the Quartos of 1609 and 1612 in modern bibliographies of Jonson's works, or of the drama, are made always on the three authorities quoted above, the Stationers' Registers, Baker's Companion to the Playhouse, or Gifford's note. Both quartos are spoken of as existent by Hazlitt, Bib. Handbk. to Early Eng. Lit. (L. 1867), p. 307; by Lowndes; by the Bibliotheca Heberiana, &c. Dr. Herford mentions only the Quartos of 1609 and 1620 in his biography of Jonson, D.N.B. There is a vain discussion of the early quartos in Notes and Queries, 9th Ser., 4, pp. 87, 152, 197. No effort to find trace of the present existence of quartos earlier than one of 1620 meets with success. A communication sent by me to Notes and Queries, August 23, 1903, asking for information on the subject, received no answer, nor did a similar advertisement by Mr. Percy Simpson, Dr. Herford's coadjutor in the edition of Ben Jonson to be published at the Oxford Press. If the records of the stationers could be implicitly trusted, the question of the quartos would never have arisen; that the quartos had been published would be recognized, while the passing of three centuries would account for the non-appearance of a single stray copy. But many books were registered which never saw the light; an entry indicated merely that printing was contemplated. Certainly, in the case of two entries, and for a play so popular as Epicane, evidence is in favor of its having reached the printer's hands at least once. However, the present editor agrees with Dr. Herford that the evidence is insufficient to establish the existence at any time of the missing quartos. As for Gifford, perhaps in this point, as in many others, he has made a slip'. The results of this discussion are patently unsatisfactory, nor does the identification of a disputed quarto in the British Museum help matters. In this library are two quartos of the comedy, one dated 1620, and one wanting the title-page and following leaf. It has been thought that the undated quarto might belong to an earlier impression, but on examination they prove to be identical in readings, type, and pagination. Not only are misprints precisely the same in both, but whatever type is blurred or poorly set in one is blurred or poorly set in the other. Cf. nothing, ANOTHER 7; on for our 1. 1. 48; bt for but 1. 1. 73; serue for serues 1. 1. 122; grat for great 1. 4. 48; Johnson 2. 2. 119; work for workes 2. 3. 23; DAVP. where the Folio misprints DAV. for DAW. 2. 3. 126; tls 2. 4. 101; sirkts 2. 5. 77; this omitted 3. 1. 24; adiugd for indg'd 3. 2. 58; Ladishis 3. 6. 100; MN. beates vpon him for beates him 4. 2. 104; so omitted 4. 4. 22; her for him 4. 4. 81; DAW. for DAV. 4. 5. 132; inginer for ingine 4. 6. 47; so omitted 5. 2. 4; againe inserted 5. 3. 8; wanc for want 5. 3. 245; with 5. 4. 39; gentleman-like -like 5. 4. 93. The quarto lacking the title-page and following leaf is therefore a copy of the edition of 1620. Welcome as the discovery of the Quartos of 1609 and 1612 would be to all students of Jonson, the lack of them does not invalidate a text of Epicane made from the earliest folios. Jonson wrote in the dedication to Sir Francis Stuart, which he prefixed to the play in the Folio of 1616: 'There is not a line or syllable in it changed from the simplicity of the first copy.' In view of Jonson's literary activity at the time, in view of the jealous respect he felt for his productions, even to the minutest detail of printing and acting, and in view of the excellence of the text of Epicane in that Folio, the author's statement is to be taken in its full significance. As Epicane was fortunate enough to require no rearrangements or additions, as in the case of Every Man in his Humour, Poetaster, and Sejanus, the editor of this comedy need watch only for the inevitable minor changes of the text-modernizations, emendations, errors of type, or the disagreements of words and phrases which investigation shows are traceable to the varying impressions of the First Folio itself, which we are now to consider. It does not behove us to discuss Jonson's personal supervision of this Folio. That it is not authority in the case of Every Man out of his Humour1 does not obviate the fact that for plays having no earlier quartos it must remain the standard. Of the Folio of 1616 there are several mutually independent impressions, as indicated by the variations in the imprint of the shield at the base of the general title-page, and by variations in the texts2. The folio in the Yale University Library reads: LONDON | Printed by | William Stanfby. | An° D. 1616. | (F) The text of Epicone in this folio resembles, except in a few instances. of punctuation, spelling, and typography, one in the British Museum reading: LONDON | printed by W: | Stansby, and are to be fould by Rich: Meighen | An° D. 1616. | (F) A second in the Museum is unique in appearance, and differs through Act 1, Act 2. 1, and 2. 2 in some important readings, in pagination, in type, and in spelling, from the first two. It is a handsome book, printed on large paper, with the engraving of Ben Jonson by Vaughan, found in the 1640 Folio, inserted opposite the title-page. The imprint on the shield runs: Imprinted at London by | Will Stansby | Ano D. 1616 | (F1) The text of Epicane begins in all three, p. 529, but at the outset the type differs. F and F, read PROLOG VE and F, PROLOGVE. F, at 1 Anglia, New Series, 14, PP. 377 ff., The Authority of the Ben Jonson Folio of 1616. 2 Mod. Lang. Quart., Apr. 1904, pp. 26-9, W. W. Greg. |