A Challenge at Tilt was first printed in F1 , where it occupies sigs. 4O6- 4P2v, pages 995-1000. It falls, therefore, in the last part of the volume where pages had to be reset or reimposed because of a failure to print sufficient copies (see Barriers, Textual Analysis, for a fuller account). In this masque the formes were reimposed, not reset (the faulty counting appears to have been discovered during the printing of 4P, and so the type was still standing). On one sheet, 4P2, some press variants exist from both impositions, and one or two obvious errors were corrected in the reimposed sheets, but, as is usual, almost all these corrections are of little importance. Only at 131, where the reimposed sheet changes ‘I?’ to ‘O’ might one argue that there is a question of substance. One might argue that ‘I’ (meaning ‘Ay’) could make sense here, but the modification seems sensible enough, though one cannot assume that any reference was made back to the original manuscript when it was introduced.
As is the case with all the later masques in the volume, Challenge does not begin or end on a separate page, but opens with the title and first five lines following on directly from Love Freed, and its final ten lines followed immediately by Irish.
There are barely any clues as to the nature of the manuscript which served as printer’s copy. There is one ‘’hem’ (88), the characteristic Jonson elision of ‘them’, and a couple of examples of ‘y’ spellings (of ‘entertayn’ and ‘maintayne’) but these are scarcely compelling evidence, and though the punctuation is not untypical of Jonson, it is perhaps lighter than his usual practice. This suggests the probability that the folio text was printed from a scribal transcript.
As with the text of Barriers there is little more than the most basic indication of exits and entrances, and though the baldness of the text might be partly explicable by the fact that Jonson saved both his own embarrassment and that of the participants at this celebration of an ill-fated marriage (see Headnote), it is consonant with the tendency of all the later masques and entertainments in the Folio. The text is very much a record of Jonson’s contribution to the event, rather than an account of its performance.
List of variants
4O1:6 (o)
4O6v 996
| State1 | State 2 | State 3 | |
| 5 | ſoueraignties | ~ ∧ | --- |
| 35 | rip∧ned | --- | rip’ned |
State 1: 26
State 2: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 37, 43
State 3: the rest
4P1:6 (o)
4P1 997; 4P6v
| State 1 | State 2 | |
| Rt | Maſques | [swash ‘M’]aſques |
State 1: 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 25, 26, 27, 31, 33, 36, 40, 42, 43, 47
State 2: the rest
4P2:5 (o)
4P2 999
| State 1 | State 2 | State 3 | State 4 | |
| Rt | [swash ‘M’]aſques | --- | Maſques | --- |
| Rt | 99 | 9999 | 999--- | |
| 19 | for [inked quad] | ~∧ | --- | --- |
| 27 | ſolicitious | ſolicitous | --- | --- |
| 37 | vpon, ... thriue∧ | ~∧ ... ~, | --- | --- |
| 42 | moſst; cleauing | --- | moſt in; cleaug | moſst;cleauing |
State 1: 32
State 2: 2, 3, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 25, 26, 37, 42, 43
State 3: 29
State 4: the rest
4P2:5 (i)
4P2v 1000
| State 1 | State 2 | |
| Rt | Maſques | [swash ‘M’]aſques |
State 1: 2, 3, 12, 13, 17, 19, 25, 26, 32, 34, 37, 40, 42, 43, 47
State 2: the rest
COPIES COLLATED (BY DAVID L. GANTS)
1. Huntington Library, 62100
2. Huntington Library, 62101
3. Huntington Library, 62104
4. Huntington Library, 62105
5. Huntington Library, 495467 (Ford Copy ‘A’)
6. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751, Copy 1
7. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751, Copy 2
8. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751, Copy 3
9. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751, Copy 4
10. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751, Copy 5
11. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751, Copy 6
12. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751.2, copy 1
13. Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 14751.2, copy 2
14. Library of Congress, Yorke W.4.4
15. Gants Personal Copy, Fenton bookplate
16. Gants Personal Copy, Everard Home bookplate
17. British Library, G. 11630 (Grenville copy)
18. Boston Public Library, XfG .3811 .5
19. Boston University, YPR 2600 .C16
20. Wellesley College, qx - English Poetry
21. Bodleian Library, Douce I. 302
22. Huntington Library, 499968
23. Huntington Library, 499967
24. Huntington Library, 499971
25. Huntington Library, 606199
26. Huntington Library, 606202
27. Huntington Library, 606200
28. Huntington Library, 606574
29. Huntington Library, 606576
30. Huntington Library, 606599
31. Huntington Library, 606579
32. Huntington Library, 606582
33. Huntington Library, 606583
34. Brown University, Providence, PR 2600 - 1616
35. Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Lewis PR2600 1616
36. University of Texas, Austin, Ah/ J738/ +B616a
37. University of Texas, Austin, Ah/ J738/ +B616ab
38. University of Texas, Austin, Ah/ J738/ +B616ad
39. University of Texas, Austin, Ah/ J738/ +B616af
40. University of Texas, Austin, Ah/ J738/ +B616ah
41. University of Texas, Austin, Ah/ J738/ +B616ak
42. University of Texas, Austin, Ah/ J738/ +B616am
43. University of Texas, Austin, AH/ J738/ +B616an
44. University of Texas, Austin, Wh/ J738/ +B616a
45. University of Texas, Austin, Pforz. 559
46. University of Texas, Austin, Woodward-Ruth 181
47. University of Texas, Austin, Stark 6431
48. University of Virginia, E 1616 .J64