Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/216

 204 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH the former is clearly the earlier or more original, while the latter presumably represents the form which the plays assumed in the latest official revision. Which of the two an editor ele<5ts to follow will depend upon the nature of the text he desires to produce. If, as is probable, he wishes to arrive at the most original text possible, he will, of course, follow the earlier version, but he must keep his eyes open for possible editorial vagaries on the part of the scribe of H. The difference between the versions arises through intentional and intelligible alterations by the younger. The difference between the texts, in passages unaffeftcd by such revision, arises mainly through corruption. It does not follow that the manuscript preserving the earliest recension will also offer the best text. With regard to this, therefore, an editor's pradtice may be different. As a matter of fa6t, if he pro- poses to seledt for his text a single manuscript and to stick to its readings through thick and thin, then that manuscript must again be H, for this is in itself by far the most correct manuscript we possess. That was Deimling's plan, and his choice of H has proved fully justified. Hemingway, while quite right in supposing that certain readings of H are due to editorial interference, was quite wrong in therefore condemning his predecessor's selection, and his own pradtice of following D when opposed by a concensus of H B W K cannot possibly be defended. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that H has been found to contain more than twice as many errors as )3, and that in general the read- ings of the latter can be restored with certainty.