Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/515

 10 S. XL MAY 29, 1909.J NOTES AND QUERIES.

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printed in 1631, and these were needed to make the collection complete. Forming only a fragment of an intended book, they had apparently never been published, and the proprietorship of them seems to have passed to Richard Meighen, whose name appeared on the title-page of some copies of the 1616 volume ; for the three plays as printed in 1631 were now issued by Meighen with a general title-page :

" The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. Containing these Playes, Viz. 1. Bar- tholomew Fayre. 2. The Staple ot Newes. 3. The Divell is an Asse. London, Printed for Richard Meighen. 1640."

Whether or not this title-page was intended to refer to more than the three plays is not clear, but it is sometimes found, with those plays, prefixed to the 1640-41 volume. It is, however, so rarely found that it is clear either that it was cancelled or that a small number only of copies was printed. Perhaps Meighen brought out these plays in a separate volume, but withdrew the book, possibly because the proprietors of the 1640-41 collection took over from him his stock of the three plays. Of course the word " containing " in this title-page may have been intended merely to show that the three plays named were included in the book among other pieces ; in that case the title-page was probably suppressed as inade- quate and misleading. My own view, that this title-page was intended for use with the three plays only, receives some support from the fact that with a large-paper copy of the 1616 volume which I possess there are bound up (in a seventeenth-century binding) the three 1631 plays, with Meighen's title-page of 1640. This volume, it will be seen, contains the whole of the folio edition of his works which was prepared for the press by Jonson himself. A similar volume (believed by the cataloguer to be unique) is in the Huth Library, but Mr. Huth informs me that it has no general title-page to the added plays of 1631. have seen a large-paper copy of the 1640-41 volume, in contemporary calf, without any general title-page. Mr. Hoe has a copy oi the whole works (1616, 1631, 1640-41) on large-paper, which contains Meighen's title- page. This copy is in two volumes, rebound. To sum up : My conclusions are that Jonson began the preparation of a second volume of his works ; that three plays were printed, in 1631, and laid aside, owing to the author's illness ; that in 1640 the owners of the " copy " in various pieces came to an agreement for the publication of

the whole in one volume ; that Meighen, who had acquired Allot's rights in the plays printed in 1631, issued those plays, some- times with a general title-page dated 1640 ; that either by arrangement among the booksellers or by the action of individual purchasers, Meighen's three plays were often bound up with the 1640-41 collection ; and that Meighen's title-page was in most cases cancelled as being inapplicable to the whole volume. It is not the case, as stated by Lowndes, that there were two separate editions, in 1640 and 1641 ; nor is it the case, as stated by Gifford, that the 1631 plays are badly printed, and that Jonson them. G. A. AITKEN.
 * ave himself no concern in the printing of

21, Church Row, Hampstead.

SHAKESPEARIAN^.. 1 ROMEO AND JULIET ' : THE EAKL or SOUTHAMPTON. It is possible that the lines, in the ballroom scene in this drama (I. v. 32-42) refer to the marriage of the parents of the Earl of Southampton the dedicatee of the two Shakespeare poems. Prof. A. F. Pollard in his article on Henry Wrio- thesley, the second Earl, in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' vol. Ixiii. p. 153, gives the date of his marriage to Mary, daughter of Anthony Browne, first Viscount Montague, as 19 Feb., 1565/6.

This date is in accord with the thirty years mentioned in the tragedy. Secondly, the third Earl was a ward, as was the son of Lucentio in the play. Thirdly, we are told that the wardship expired " two years ago." The third Earl was born in 1573 ; and 1573 + 21+2=1596, or about the date at which the drama was written.

That Romeo was a Montague, as was also the Earl through his mother's family, is probably a coincidence ; for in Brooke's poem we also have Montague as the family name. But, on the other hand, the tragedy tells us that Lucentio 's wedding was cele- brated on Pentecost. In 1565 Pentecost occurred on 10 June ; in 1566 on 2 June. The ' D.N.B.' gives, as already stated, 19 February. Prof. Pollard has advised me that he obtained the date of this marriage from the Hampshire Field Club Papers and Proceedings for 1889 and 1898 ; but not having these Proceedings with him, he was unable to verify. I have made efforts, both here and in England, to obtain a copy of the Hampshire publications, but without success. I shall, therefore, be much in- debted to any one who has access to a copy