Year: 1987
Type: article
Abstract: attempted. 1 Although it is not the purpose of this note to present the results of such an analysis (I hope to publish a complete account of these at a later date), a number of specific autograph spellings as well as certain significant features of Jonson's spelling in the holograph deserve separate discussion in that they appear to contradict some of the conclusions advanced by Herford and Simpson which are relevant to determining the authority of specific Folio proof corrections and, therefore, can potentially contribute to knowledge of the Folio's textual history. The intention of this note is to show that while correctly concluding that Jonson preferred certain spellings to others, Herford and Simpson were mistaken in suggesting that Jonson preferred spelling ie to y in final syllables and favored eliminating y spellings generally. Evidence in the Masque of Queens holograph indicates just the opposite: Jonson more frequently spelled ythan ie terminally and y medially. As these autograph spellings provide a substantial body of evidence whose authority is unquestionable, they merit additional scholarly consideration what they might reveal about the authority of Jonson's printed texts upon which Herford and Simpson based their conclusions. In their analysis of the proof corrections in signature F of the 1601 quarto of Cynthia's Revels, Herford and Simpson indicated Jonson's responsibility for changing the '-y' of final syllables to '-ie' and his consistency in eliminating y spellings in general (IV, 8-10). In the outer forme of signature F, instance, Herford and Simpson suggested that Jonson corrected ten words in III.ii.—any (11. 49 and 53), Courtly (1. 48), Enuy (1. 23), euery (1. 47), extraordinary (1. 57), Marry (1. 46), particulerly (1. 58), slightly (1.51), Society (1.34), and waye (1. 58)—by eliminating y. Similarly, in leaf F2v, Herford and Simpson indicated that Jonson eliminated six other y spellings including, in III.iv., away (1.63), body(l. 50), onely(l. 71), and truly (1.51), while perhaps writing Playes (1. 67) and eyther (1. 48). Herford and Simpson tested Jonson's preference -ie in Cynthia's Revel's Induction in which some twenty-three -y spellings in the 1601 quarto were changed to ie in the 1616 Folio while eight of the quarto's -y spellings were preserved. Among those -y spellings which Herford and Simpson believed that Jonson changed were any (I. 47) Capacity(1, 215), Company(1.183), Countrey(l. 43), Enuy(l' 30), euery (1. 181), Memory (1. 108), and trechery (1. 25). The preference -ie was further tested by two proof corrections in the Folio's text of the Induction—peremptory (1. 74) and deformity (1. 120)—which Herford and Simpson identified as Jonson's. 2 Analysis of Jonson's spellings in the Masque of Queens holograph reveals evidence which clearly contradicts Herford and Simpson's conclusions about Jonson's spelling preferences, indicating in fact that Jonson wrote terminal -y more frequently than -ie and consistently wrote
Author: James K Bracken
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W31724768