The Faerie Queen: The Shepheards Calendar: Together with the other Works
of England's Arch-Pöet, Edm. Spenser: Collected into one Volume, and
carefully corrected. _Printed by H. L. for Mathew Lownes. Anno Dom._
1617.
F^o. (11 × 7-3/8). F. 6.
Title within woodcut border as above. Collation: A^6, with two
unsigned leaves inserted after A 1, B-P^6Q^4R-2H^6; ¶^8; A-E^6F^4;
A^8; A-L^6M^2, paged in first alphabet only. A 1, 2H 6 (first
alphabet), ¶ 8 and F 4 (second alphabet), blank. Double columns. In
this copy the quire signed ¶ is misplaced after the second
alphabet, an arrangement also found in the copy in the Cambridge
University Library. It is sometimes found at the end of the volume.
The inserted sheet contains titlepage and dedication to Queen
Elizabeth. The 'Faery Queen' is the same edition as above (1611),
but has the date 1612 on the titlepage to Part II; so also is sig.
¶ and the single quire A containing the 'Prosopopoia'. The
remainder is a very close reprint, the contents and collation being
identical. The separate titlepages have dates as follows (they are
all printed 'by H. L. for Mathew Lownes' except the first):
'Shepheards Calender' with imprint 'London, Printed by Bar: Alsop
for Iohn Harrison the elder, and are to bee solde at his shop at
the signe of the golden Anker in Pater Noster Row, 1617.'; 'Colin
Clout' undated, 'Prothalamion' etc. 1617. The peculiarities
observable in the various copies of the collected editions of 1611
and 1617 are best explained on the following hypothesis. On Sept.
3, 1604 W. Ponsonby assigned his right in both parts of the 'Faery
Queene' to S. Waterson, who on Nov. 5 in the same year passed it on
to M. Lownes, who published an edition in 1609. Two years later the
question of a collected edition of Spenser's works arose. Lownes
caused a complete edition to be printed, and at the same time
determined to use up the remaining copies of the 1609 'Faery
Queen'. Instead however of printing the new titlepage on A 1 he
caused a single sheet to be printed containing title and
dedication, which could be substituted for the 1609 title. A 1
consequently remained blank in the new edition as it is found in
the present copy, and the title-sheet was inserted after it. The
result of using up the 1609 edition was that the stock of some of
the additional matter in the 1611 edition was exhausted before the
stock of the 'Faery Queen'. In 1617 a new title-sheet was printed
and prefixed to the remainder stock, the additional pieces being
reprinted when necessary. Even now some of the original copies of
1609 remained and were issued with the general title and additional
matter dated 1617. A copy in this state is in the Library. The
first part to run out was the fourth alphabet containing 'Colin
Clout' etc., which is always found reprinted in copies having the
1617 titlepage. Perhaps the next was the 'Prosopopoia' which is
found dated 1613 in the present copy, but which is undated in the
copy in the Cambridge University Library. This last-mentioned copy
however has the original edition of the 'Shepherds Calender' dated
1611, while the present copy has the reprint of 1617. How this came
to bear the imprint given above requires explanation. The editions
of the 'Calender' of 1581 to 1597 were all printed for John
Harrison the younger (_i.e._ John Harrison II) and he probably
objected when Lownes issued the work with his own name as publisher
in the collected edition of 1611. Before the reprint however was
required John Harrison the elder (_i.e._ John Harrison I) either
died or retired from business (1616), whereupon John Harrison II
assumed the style of 'the elder' to distinguish himself from a John
Harrison IV who had started business in 1603.