INTRODUCTION

A. EDITIONS OF THE TEXT

The Staple of News was first printed in folio in 1631, and probably it was then put into circulation, either as a separate pamphlet or bound with Bartholomew Fair and The Devil is an Ass. Copies of this original edition were, in 1641, bound into the second volume of the First Folio of Jonson's collected works.1 Our play appears, therefore, in all the collected editions. These are as follows: (1) the First Folio, just mentioned; (2) the 'Third Folio,' a doublecolumn edition in one volume, 1692; (3) a booksellers' edition, 1716 [1717]; (4) Peter Whalley's 'corrected' edition, 1756; (5) John Stockdale's reprint of Whalley's edition (together with the works of Beaumont and Fletcher), 1811; (6) William Gifford's 'critical' edition, 1816 (second edition, 1846); (7) Barry Cornwall's one-volume edition, 1838; (8) Lieut.-Col. Francis Cunningham's three-volume re-issue (with some minor variations) of Gifford's edition, 1871; (9) the same in nine volumes, 1875 (now the standard edition). The Catalogue of the British Museum shows that Jonson's plays were printed in two volumes at Dublin in 1709, and no doubt The Staple of News was included. Of these editions, only the first, from which the text of this present work is taken, is of great importance; and of the others, only the second, third, fourth, and sixth call for any discussion.

The second volume of the First Folio, which contains the original edition of our play, has been much discussed. Some of the title-pages in it are dated 1631, some 1640,

'The first volume of this Folio was printed in 1616. A reprint of this volume, made in 1640, is sometimes called the 'Second Folio.'

and others 1641, and different copies vary in signatures, pagination, wording of title-pages, and other details. Gifford believed that it was printed from manuscripts surreptitiously obtained; Miss Bates, in her English Drama,1 says it belongs to 1631, and that it was reprinted in 1640, and again in 1641; Ward, in his History of English Dramatic Literature,2 comes to a conclusion similar to that of Miss Bates. In 1870, however, Brinsley Nicholson, by a careful collation, showed that the different copies, despite their variations, were all printed from the same forms; and in 1882 Hazlitt arrived at the same conclusion. The truth seems to be that this volume is made up of pieces printed separately and designed for separate sale, and that impressions were struck off at different dates, with changes in the forms in the meantime; hence the irregularities in signatures and pagination, and the variations in different copies.

3

As the copy from which the text of this present edition was taken differs in some respects from that described by Nicholson and Hazlitt, it has seemed advisable to give a somewhat detailed collation of it.

Folio by measurement: signatures in fours.

Collation:5 Five leaves, the second with the signature A1; B-M; Aa (changed after Cc, to a single letter)-I (F2 is printed F); two leaves without signature; N-Y®; B-Q; R, two leaves; S-X; Y, two leaves; Z; Aa-Oo; Pp, two leaves; Qq, one leaf; three leaves without signature; A-K; L, two leaves; M-R (S, T, V, X, Y, Z omitted); A-P; Q, two leaves; R-V.

There is no general title-page (in some copies that of the first volume of the 1640 Folio is inserted). (1) Title-page of Bartholomew Fayre, printed 1631. This is the first of five leaves, the second

4

Bibliog. Coll. and Notes, p. 320.

'J, U, and W are always omitted.

For the dislocation in signatures, etc., see (3) below.

with the signature A, the others without signature, and all without pagination. The Prologue, etc., A; verso, The Persons of the Play; the Induction, the next three leaves; the play itself, B-M: pp. [1-10] and 1-88. (2) Title-page of The Staple of Newes (see first page of text), printed 1631: As (changed after Cc2 to a single letter)-I; two leaves: pp. [1-76]. (3) Title-page of The Divell is an Asse, printed 1631: [N]-Y (verso blank): pp. [91]-170. The signatures and pagination show that it was intended that this play should follow Bartholomew Fayre. Pp. 89, 90, however, are wanting. (4) The Masques, beginning with Christmas his Masque (no t.p.), B-Q; R, two leaves; S-X; Y, two leaves (verso blank): pp. 1-[160]. P. 93 [N] is numbered 87. B, has verso blank. Only two of the Masques have title-pages-the Masque for the Entertainement of Monsieur Le Baron De Tour, [C] p. 9, and The Metamorphosed Gipsies, [G] p. 47. (5) Title-page of Underwoods, printed M. DC. XL: [Z]; Aa-Oo; Pp, two leaves; Qq, one leaf (verso blank): pp. [161-286]. Page 285 is numbered 283. (6) Title-page of Mortimer His Fall (verso blank), printed M. DC. XL: pp. [287]-292. This fragment occupies three leaves, none of which has a signature. Only the third leaf is paged: 291-292. (7) Titlepage of Horace his Art of Poetrie, printed M. DC. XL: [A]-D; (verso blank): pp. 1–30. (8) Title-page of The English Grammar, printed M. DC. XL: [D]-L2: pp. [31]-84. (9) Title-page of Timber, or Discoveries, printed M. DC. XLI: M-R: pp. 85-132. (10) Title-page of The Magnetick Lady, printed M. CD [DC]. XL: [A] (verso blank); Persons of the Play, A2 (verso blank); Induction, [A]-[A1] (verso blank); the play itself, B-H: pp. [1]–64. (11) Title-page of A Tale of a Tub, printed M. CD [DC]. XL: [I] (verso blank)-[Q2] (verso blank): pp. [65]-114. The pagination of 70–79 is repeated. (12) Title-page of The Sad Shepherd, printed M. DC. XLI: [R] (verso blank)-V (verso blank): pp. [115]-156. Pages 123-132 are omitted in the pagination.

Both Whalley and Gifford, reasoning chiefly from the carelessness of the text, believed that Jonson gave himself no concern about the printing of The Staple of News. He had it entered at the Stationers' Register, however, in April, 1626, a few weeks after it was acted, and probably would have published it then but for a stroke of paralysis, which he suffered that year. It is well-nigh certain, too, that he gave some, though by no means careful, attention to the printing of it in 1631. The evidence for this is an