This transcription is based on the text printed, presumably soon after
the first production in 1859, by Webster and Co. as number 199 of
_Webster's Acting National Drama_ series. This text was made available
as a microcopy by the University of California, Davis. However,
because of the imperfections of the microcopy, the transcription was
checked against a copy of an American Samuel French edition, number
287 of _French's Minor Drama, The Acting Edition_ series. Scans of
this copy have been made available through the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/WebsterOneTouchofNature
The Samuel French edition is essentially a reprint of the Webster
edition with minor changes to punctuation.
The 1902 edition published in Philadelphia by the Penn Publishing
Company was also reviewed, but because of textual changes this edition
was not used. Some of these changes corrected the grammar of the
original. For example, Holder enters saying "It's me, sir" in the
Webster and French editions, but says "It's I, sir" in the Penn. Some
of the changes attempted to make the language more acceptable to
American sensibilities. For example, in the Webster and French
editions, Fletcher enters saying, "The devil take the theatre, and all
the actresses into the bargain!" In the Penn edition, he enters
saying, "The mischief with the theatre, and all the actresses into the
bargain!" Similar changes were made throughout the text.
In general, this transcription attempts to retain the formatting,
punctuation, and spelling of the source text. Stage directions were
punctuated three different ways: with parentheses without a period,
with a period within the parentheses, and with a period immediately
following the closing parenthesis. No attempt was made to make the
punctuation of stage directions consistent.
The following changes were made to the text:
--Title page: Inserted a period after "AND ALL BOOKSELLERS" for
consistency.
--p. 8: HOL. Shall I take it home with me and finish it.--Changed the
period to a question mark.
--p. 8: HOL. Is it readable.--Changed the period to a question mark.
--p. 9: HOL. Its fine, very fine!--For consistency, changed "Its" to
"It's".
--p. 10: FLE. Oh!----well, there (_tears up letter._)--Inserted a
period after "there".
--p. 11: FLE. Will you finish copying the last leaf.--Changed the
period to a question mark.
--p. 11: HOL. Ah! yes, directly--conclude its done.--Changed "its" to
"it's".
--p. 13: CON. But if I have the credit of knowing it, for I spoke to
my cue.--Followed the Samuel French edition and deleted "if".
--p. 16: BEL (_to CONSTANCE_) Proof positive.--For consistency,
inserted a period after the character title abbreviation "BEL", and
following the Samuel French edition changed the period to an
exclamation mark.
--p. 16: BEL. Who then.--Followed the Samuel French edition and
changed the period to a question mark.
--p. 18: As for your daughter." Followed the Samuel French edition
and changed the period to an em dash.
--p. 20: [_Enter CONSTANCE._--For consistency, deleted the opening
square bracket and in the html-based versions of this transcription
centered the stage direction for an entrance.
--p. 22: HOL. I beg your pardon; I was mistaken. "Yes, your father not
a minute--Followed the Samuel French edition and inserted an
exclamation mark after "father" and capitalized "not".
--p. 23: This time you will feel the words, "He pressed you in his
arms--Followed the Samuel French edition and changed the comma to a
period.
--p. 24: FLE. And are you still bent on departing.--Changed the period
to a question mark.