Neptune’s Triumph for the Return of Albion was first printed in a quarto probably intended for distribution at the time of performance. The title-page carries no details of the printer, and there is no date beyond the statement ‘celebrated in a / Masque / at the Court on the Twelfth night / 1623’. Since the masque was cancelled before its presentation, the quarto must already have been printed some time before Twelfth Night, and presumably remained unissued (unless advance copies were given to the masquers who were expecting to appear in it). Only three copies survive today, suggesting that its circulation was very limited. They are:
1 British Library, London: 644.b.57 (lacks A2.3; cropped)
2 Bodleian Library, Oxford: Mal. 233(7) (cropped)
3 Henry E. Huntington Library, California: shelf-mark 62110
The quarto consists of three sheets, and collates A-C4. A1 is the title-page, with verso blank; the text occupies A2-C3r, with C3v blank; C4 is absent from all three surviving copies, and must have been a blank. There is no pagination; the running title is ‘NEPTVNES TRIVMPH.’ The text is carefully prepared, especially in comparison with the unsatisfactory quarto of Time Vindicated that had been printed the previous year. Throughout both antimasque and masque, speech-headings are set in small capitals and centred above the text. Speeches are set in English roman type and songs in italic, a distinction which is preserved in the closing section of the main masque where, unusually, a character (the Poet) intervenes with speeches between the songs. The stage directions are all set in great primer, which separates them effectively from the rest of the text. The italicization of individual words for emphasis is also done systematically. There are marginal notes on A2, A2v, A3, A4, B1, B4, and B4v, and all notes have their positions marked in the text by Jonson’s usual method of superscript letters inside brackets. Almost certainly the masque was printed from copy prepared by Jonson himself. Jonson’s characteristic contraction ‘’hem’ appears at 175, 207, and 213 (the instances at 175 and 213 are all the more striking because the compositor has contracted other words in the same lines so as to accommodate them on the page). There is one clear Jonsonian spelling, ‘cortines’ (174), which recurs in Volpone, 4.6.82, 5.2.84 and The Alchemist, 4.2.7. At 108, ‘steru’d’ might also be a Jonsonism: it occurs in Bart. Fair, 3.5.66, Staple, First Intermean, 14, and Wales, 292, though ‘starue’ or ‘staru’d’ appear nine times elsewhere in the canon. While there are none of Jonson’s usual elisions, ‘He, has’ (70) was probably meant to appear as ‘He’has’. Stage directions are full and informative, much more so than they had been in Time Vindicated, for example. The only problem comes with the awkwardly expressed SD at 221-3, but the difficulty seems to be that of describing complex action economically, rather than any uncertainty about the action itself.
The quarto was evidently composed seriatim, for some page breaks in the prose dialogue occur in the middle of words, and others in the verse passages occur in the middle of lines divided between characters. There is some spelling variation, between ‘do’ (A4v, B1, B1v, B4, C1v, C2) and ‘doe’ (A2, A3, B2, C1, C1v, C2), and ‘go’ (B2, B3, C2, C2v) and ‘goe’ (B4, C1v), though this may be merely the inconsistencies of a single compositor. The text appears to have been imposed with a single skeleton. The running titles are all remarkably alike, but similarities of vertical and horizontal spacing on B (inner) and B (outer) suggest that the same set of titles had been reused; there are other, less conclusive similarities between running titles in sheets A and C.
A remarkable insight into the production of the quarto is provided by a copy of sheet C marked up for correction, which has survived bound into the British Library copy. As Johan Gerritsen points out, this is a preliminary sheet which has been pulled specifically for proofing: the type is not yet properly imposed, for the headlines are out of register vertically and horizontally, a feature which is corrected in the Huntington and Oxford copies (Gerritsen, 1984, 109 ). A series of changes are marked in ink on the proof, with lines under the words to be corrected, and letters struck through and corrected in the margin. In one instance, at 352, the word ‘Then’ has been written onto the proof, between ‘The Antimasque of Saylors.’ and ‘The last Song to the whole Musique’. These corrections have all been made in the Huntington and Oxford copies, plus five other changes which the proof does not mark, some being substantive corrections (e.g. ‘fer’ / ‘for’ at 341), others technical changes such as the relineation of white space or normalizing of kerns and turned letters. This suggests that sheet C was proofed by two correctors: once by a reader who was watching for technical imperfections, and once by the reader of the British Library sheet who missed some of the technical errors but who went so far as to supply missing text at 352 which made a stylistic improvement to that stage direction. The tempting inference is that the corrector of the British Library sheet was the author himself, and that this is our only surviving proof-sheet which shows Jonson at work on his own printed text. As Gerritsen says (1984, 117 ), ‘That the sheet is a proof on both sides argues that it was pulled to be sent outside. Where else could it have been intended to go than to the author?’ Only the absence of other proof sheets corrected by Jonson with which to compare this example prevents us from verifying this claim.
The variants in sheet C are as follows (those marked for correction on the proof-sheet are indicated with an asterisk):
| C (outer) | state 1 | state 2 | state 3 |
| C1r | |||
| 7 | higheſt | ~ | highest |
| 15* | SAKON | SARON | ~ |
| C2v | |||
| 14 | fer | for | ~ |
| 24* | sayles | hayles | hayles |
Additionally, in 6 the first ‘e’ in ‘Neptunes’, which in state 1 rises above the line, has been marked for correction and ranged downwards in state 2. In 24, ‘sayles’ is marked both for correction and italicization, though these emendations were made in successive states, not simultaneously.
| C3r | |||
| 2* | [omitted] | Then | ~ |
| 14* | SAROV. | SARON. | ~ |
Additionally, in state 2 the white space around ‘Song.’ (5) and ‘The last Dance.’ (25) has been reduced, and is so marked on the proof copy.
| C (inner) | state 1 | state 2 |
| C1v | ||
| 15* | sea, | \Sea, |
| 19 | and | & |
| 19* | orkes | Orkes |
| C2r | ||
| 6* | confeſſ e | confeſse, [with ligature] |
| 7* | see | see, |
| 24 | Like [turned ‘e’] | Like |
state 1: copy 1
state 2: copies 2, 3
There are a few errors that were not corrected in sheet C, for example, ‘hea’ds’ (285) and ‘Which’ for ‘With’ (335). Other errors remaining in other sheets include missed capitalizations at 194 and 251, the wrong elision ‘Hea’uens’ at 233, and incorrect marginal alignments to the verse in the bottom half of B4v. Notwithstanding these inconsistencies, the technical work on this volume was of a high standard.
Neptune’s Triumph was entered in the Stationers’ Register by [Andrew] Crooke and Richard Sergier on 20 March 1640, as part of a larger entry attempting to establish copyrights in advance of the publication of the second folio (see Pan’s Anniversary, Textual Essay). It was subsequently reprinted in the masque section of F2 , where it occupies sigs. P1-Q3r, pages 105-17, between Time Vindicated and Pan’s Anniversary. The folio text omits Jonson’s marginalia and changes some of the stage directions to italic, but it is in other respects a close reprint of the quarto, with many details carried across verbatim. Q’s punctuation, italicization, capitalization, and even some of its spelling reappear in F2: for example, F2 has ‘steru’d’ (108), ‘Delus’ (126), ‘cortines’ (174), and ‘biefe’ (194), while Q’s mistakes of pointing at 293 (‘sports.’) and 335 (‘strength^’) are reproduced, as are an incorrect indentation at 208, and lower-case initial letters at 194 and 251. F2 alters the date of performance and corrects Q’s readings at 306 and 335, but other variants are errors or sophistications (15, 198, 250, 252, 253, 307). One change was made to F2 as it passed through the press (the copies collated are listed at the end of this section):
| P1v (106) | state 1 | state 2 |
| 5 | a Masque; | you’ll | a | Masque; you’ll |
state 1: 21, 34
state 2: all other copies
One part of the masque circulated independently of Q and F2, the song ‘Come, noble nymphs, and do not hide’. This was printed in John Benson’s duodecimo edition of Jonson’s Poems (1640) as a continuous lyric, without the speakers’ names that it carries in the masque, under the title ‘To the Ladies of the Court. An Ode.’ Benson’s text has five substantive differences from Q and F2:
311 the] us
314 parts] arts
320 on the shore] long before
322 greener] green
326 Of which] Whereof
Copies were also collected in four seventeenth-century manuscript miscellanies:
1. JnB 606: British Library, Harley MS 4955, fol. 192 (the Newcastle manuscript, which contains a large collection of Jonson texts in the hand of William Rolleston, steward to the Cavendish family at Welbeck, probably written in the 1630s)
2. JnB 610: West Yorkshire Archives, Leeds, MX 237, fol. 62v (a verse miscellany known as ‘Sir John Reresby’s book of poems’, in the papers of the Savile family of Methley Hall, near Pontefract; probably collected in the 1630s)
3. JnB 607: Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 36/37, fol. 29 (a copy written by the antiquary Elias Ashmole, in a composite volume of verse collected by him; mid-seventeenth century)
4. JnB 609: Edinburgh University Library, MS Dc.7.94, fols. 17v-18 (included in a transcript of Benson’s edition of Jonson’s poems, written by one ‘S.H.’, who was born in 1665: late seventeenth century)
There is besides a copy of the opening lines in Bodleian Library MS Don.c.57 (JnB 608), a collection of songs, many associated with the London theatres, probably compiled in the 1640s (this is considered in the Music Archive). Except for the Edinburgh version, which follows Benson’s text, the manuscripts are in close textual agreement with Q and F2. The only substantive variants come in the Newcastle manuscript:
329 your smiles] and your smiles <‘and’ written over deletion>
330 Ambrosian] Ambrosiack
The Newcastle manuscript calls it ‘A Song at Court to inuite the Ladies to Daunce.’ The Leeds manuscript has the title ‘Some Ladyes richly adorn’d and refusing to Dance at a Masque, were woo’d to it after this manner.’ The Edinburgh copy reproduces Benson’s title, ‘To ye Ladies of ye Court. An Ode.’
Outside the collected editions, Neptune’s Triumph has also appeared in The Progresses, Processions and Magnificent Festivities of James I, ed. John Nichols (1828) ; Ben Jonson: Masques and Entertainments, ed. Henry Morley (1890) ; English Masques, ed. H. A. Evans (1897) ; Ben Jonson: Complete Masques, ed. Stephen Orgel (1969) ; Ben Jonson: Selected Masques, ed. Stephen Orgel (1970) ; and Inigo Jones; The Theatre of the Stuart Court, ed. Stephen Orgel and Roy Strong (1973) ; Jacobean and Caroline Masques, vol. 2, ed. Richard Dutton (1987) ; and Court Masques, ed. David Lindley (1995) .
The copies of F2 collated for this edition are as follows:
1. Boston Public Library, **G.3811.8 (Sir Lister Holte copy)
2. Brotherton Library, Leeds, Brotherton Collection Fol 1640 JON
3. Brotherton Library, Leeds, Brotherton Collection Lt q JON
4. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754, copy 1
5. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754, copy 2
6. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754, copy 3
7. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754, copy 4
8. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754, copy 5
9. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754, copy 6
10. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754.2, copy 1
11. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., 14754.2, copy 2
12. Huntington Library, San Marino, California: 62101-v.2
13. Huntington Library, San Marino, California: 62103
14. Huntington Library, San Marino, California: 495468 (Schlatter-Shaver copy)
15. Huntington Library, San Marino, California: 600688
16. Huntington Library, San Marino, California: 606598
17. Houghton Library, Harvard University, fSTC 14751 v.2 (Norton Perkins copy)
18. Houghton Library, Harvard University, HEW 6.10.10. v.2 (Widener copy)
19. Library of Congress, Washington D.C., PR2600 1616a copy 2 [a copy of F2, notwithstanding the call number]
20. Library of Congress, Washington D.C., PR2600 1640 copy 2
21. Library of Congress, Washington D.C., PR2600 1640 copy 3
22. New York Public Library, *KC 1640
23. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Vet.A2 d. 73
24. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Gibson 520
25. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Don. d. 66
26. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Douce I.303
27. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Gibson 518
28. University of Pennsylvania, Folio STC 14754 (Furness-Schelling copy)
29. University of Pennsylvania, Folio STC 14754 (RBC copy)
30. University of Pennsylvania, PR2600 C40 v.2 (Edwin Forrest copy)
31. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Pforz. 560
32. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Pr 2600
1640 vol. 1, copy 1, Stark 5433
33. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Pr 2600
1640 vol. 2, copy 2, Woodward-Ruth 1
34. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Wh J738
+B641
35. Clark Library, Los Angeles, *F PR2600 1640c
36. Beinecke Library, Yale University: J738+B640 copy 1 (C. W. Bradley copy)
37. Beinecke Library, Yale University: J738+B640 copy 2
38. Beinecke Library, Yale University: J738+B640B (Morris Tyler copy)
39. Beinecke Library, Yale University: 1977+424 (John Milton Boardman copy)
40. Beinecke Library, Yale University: 1978+47 (Norman Holmes Pearson copy)
41. David Gants copy
42. Martin Butler copy