=Philos and Licia=, though entered on October 2, 1606 and presumably
printed soon thereafter, survives only in the unique copy of the 1624
edition printed by W. S. [William Stansby?] for John Smethwick. (No
record of transfer of this poem from William Aspley, who entered it,
exists, though Aspley and Smethwick were associated, along with
William Jaggard, in the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio of
1623.)
Robert Burton bequeathed this copy of =Philos and Licia=, along with
many of his other books, to the Bodleian Library in 1639. Under the
terms of his will the Bodleian was to have first choice of his books,
unless it already had duplicates, and Christ Church, Burton's college,
second choice. Along with =Philos and Licia=, the Bodleian received the
following other minor epics from Burton's collection: =Pigmalion's
Image= (1598), =Venus and Adonis= (1602), =Samacis and Hermaphroditus=
(1602), and =Hero and Leander= (1606).[31] Burton regularly wrote his
name in full, some abbreviation thereof, or at least his initials, on
the title page of his books, usually across the middle. In =Philos and
Licia=, Burton's heavily and distinctively written initials RB are
written a bit below the middle of the title page, on either side of
the printer's device.[32] Also in its typical location at the bottom
of the title page is found "a curious mark, a sort of hieroglyphic or
cypher," which Burton almost always affixed to his books. The
significance of this device remains obscure; it "has usually been
supposed to represent the three 'R's' in his name joined
together."[33]
Although the dedication of Dunstan Gale's =Pyramus and Thisbe= is dated
November 25, 1596, no copy of an earlier edition than that printed in
1617 for Roger Jackson is extant. The unsophisticated, highly
imitative style of the piece, the date of the dedication, and the fact
that the printer's device in the 1617 edition is an old one, used
previously in 1586-87 by Ralph Newbery,[34] to whom Jackson was
apprenticed from 1591-99,[35] suggests that the poem was originally
published by Newbery about 1596. Probably this first edition had the
same device as the edition of 1617, and a similar title page.
According to Newbery's will, Roger Jackson and John Norcott were to
receive his stock of books on Fleet Street, but McKerrow, citing the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 30, Hudlestone as his authority, says
the offer seems not to have been taken up.[36] Gale's poem would seem
to constitute an exception to this generalization.
=Pyramus and Thisbe= was also issued with Greene's =Arbasto= in 1617. On
Jan. 16, 1625/26 Gale's poem was transferred from Roger Jackson's
widow to Francis Williams,[37] who had it printed for the last time in
1626.
Nothing of note has been turned up with regard to the first and only
early edition of Lynche's =Dom Diego and Ginevra= (1596).
According to their first modern editor, A. B. Grosart, the first and
only early editions of =Mirrha= and =Hiren= are notorious for their
wretched typography and printing errors of various kinds.[38] He
writes, "In all my experience of our elder literature I have not met
with more carelessly printed books. Typographical and punctuation
errors not only obscure the meaning but again and again make places
absolutely unintelligible."[39] Their author Barksted must share the
blame, Grosart opines, for some of the poem's errors would seem to
show that he was "ill-educated and unpractised in composition."[40]
Henry Plomer agrees with Grosart that Edward Allde, the printer of
=Mirrha=, was guilty of poor type and workmanship.[41] Perhaps the
grossest example in =Mirrha= of the kind of thing Plomer may have had in
mind is the tipping of the type on the title page of the two copies of
this poem which have come to my attention.[42] Another example would
be the awkward separation of the "A" in "Adonis" on one line of the
title page from the rest of the word on the next.
But although =Mirrha= is indeed a printer's nightmare, it strikes me
that Grosart is far too severe in his strictures against =Hiren=, which
was quite attractively and reasonably accurately printed, probably by
Nicholas Okes,[43] who also printed =The Scourge=. Indeed Grosart has
"corrected" a number of details of punctuation in the poem which might
better have been left standing, in view of the generally light
punctuation of Barksted's day. In two instances Grosart has even
"corrected" details which, as "corrected," follow the unique copy of
=Hiren=, the Bodleian copy which he consulted.[44]
Page's =Amos and Laura= was first published in 1613,[45] a second time
in 1619. Finally, in 1628, a second impression of the edition of 1613,
with slight variants from it, was printed.
In the nineteenth century =Amos and Laura= was remarked upon chiefly
for its dedicatory verses to Izaak Walton in the unique copy of the
1619 edition at the British Museum, verses found neither in the then
only known, imperfect British Museum copy of the 1613 edition, nor in
the impression of 1628. These verses have long been thought to
constitute the first reference to Walton in print. But three
additional copies of the 1613 edition have by now come to light, at
the Folger, the Huntington, and at the British Museum.[46] All three
copies, though variously imperfect, contain the dedicatory verses.[47]
A word remains to be said about the way in which the second impression
of the 1614 =Scourge=, "corrected, and enlarged, by H. A." differs from
the first edition of 1613. Though long thought to be identical with
the first edition,[48] the second impression, besides being corrected
in a number of details, is "enlarged" by the following two stanzas
after the line on p. 262, "Helpe Nurse, else long I cannot live."[49]
Some say (and you can tell the truth likewise)
When women once have felt that they cal sport,
And in their wombe a Tympanie doth rise
For things peculiar they do oft import:
And though most odious it do seeme to some,
Yet give it them or they are quite undone.
And so my case most desperate standes you see,
I long for this yet know no reason why,
Unlesse a womans will a reason bee,
We'le have our will although unlawfully,
It is most sweete and wholsome unto mee,
Though it seeme bad and odious unto thee.
The third impression of 1620 follows the edition of 1613 but prints
three stanzas to a page instead of four.