266 Lawrence Mason, 



The attribution to Jonson is equally futile and more absurd, in view 

 of the poems entitled "To my Sister Anne King" and "To my dead 

 friend Ben : Johnson."' 



Secondl}-, in regard to the question as to whether these three dif- 

 ferent title-pages and dates represent one edition or three, the evidence 

 is again conclusive. To begin with, one copy has been described 

 ("Bibl. Anglo-Poetica," 183) in which, by a careless oversight, the 

 1657 title-page was not removed when the spurious 1700 sheet was 

 inserted. Moreover, the prefatory address from "The Pubhshers to 

 the Author" continues to be signed by the same printers, regardless 

 of the altered announcements on the 1664 and 1700 title-pages. 

 Furthermore, the same typographical errors occur in all (e. g., two 

 pages numbered 139, but none 137 ; "lad" for "laid," p. 32, line 11), 

 even the slips noted in the original list of "Errata" (and the mis- 

 print in that very list itself) remaining uncorrected. And finally, 

 a very minute collation has been made for the present undertaking, 

 with somewhat pecuhar results. More than fifty slight mechanical 

 irregularities have been noted, such as the following ; "sh" below the 

 line in "Prentiship," 4, line 12; "s" below the line in "Theams," 

 21, line 3 ; defective alignment and comma in "loves," 25, line 11 ; 

 blot in "ill," 28, line 15; defective spacing in "your," 31, line 16; 

 defective "i" in "Ship," title at top of 49; "I" above the line in 

 "Is," 94, line I ; period missing at end of 141, line 18, etc. In these 

 yioints all copies agree, regardless of their title-page. But the follow- 

 ing differences occur, each copy being referred to by the letter 

 assigned to it in the list printed on pages 264—265, above : in 

 the numbering of page 26, the 6 is above the 2 in (a), below in (g) 

 and (i) ; in the catchword "But," at the bottom of page 39, the "t" 

 is below the line in (a) and (g), above in (i) ; the "r" in "Through," 

 72, line 12, is invisible in (a), gone save for a dot in (g), but faintly 

 ])resent in (i) ; the "st" in "most," 73, line 19, is slightly blotted in 

 (a), clear in (g) and badly blotted in (i) ; the numbering of page 113 

 is perfect in (a) and (i), but represented by a single figure i in (g) ; 

 the "1" in "shall," 135, line 21, is above the line in (a) and (i), below 

 in (g) ; etc. Furthermore, just as many differences will be found 

 between (g) and (h), i. e. between two copies bearing the same title- 

 page, as between (g) and (a) or (g) and (i) ; e. g., "ill," 28, line 15, is 

 blotted in (g), unblotted in (h) ; "With," the catch-word at the bottom 



^ For an account of this "clumsy" and "stupid" attempt at deception, 

 of. "Censura Literaria." 1807, V, 50, or "Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica," 1815, 

 183. 



