A Tale of a Tub: Textual Essay

Peter Happé

A Tale of a Tub was first printed in the so-called ‘third’ volume of the second edition of the Works in the years 1640-1. This volume (F2(3)) comprised most of Jonson’s late works of poetry, drama, and prose. The name for the volume can hardly be Jonson’s (there is no title page), but it was so-called in the Stationers’ Register (see below) and it was presumably meant to be a continuation following the second volume originally planned and abandoned by Jonson in 1631. As W. W. Greg has pointed out (1939-59, 3.1080 ), this third volume was printed in three sections which were generated in different ways, some items having been previously printed and some not. These three parts were subsequently bound up in different orders. In the section containing plays, the quire signatures for Tub run from [I1] to [Q2v] (which is blank). These are all in fours except for quire Q, which is a bifolium. They follow directly upon those for The Magnetic Lady, and in turn those for The Sad Shepherd follow them, the latter beginning on a new quire, R. Thus the collation for the whole play sequence is {2o A-P4, Q2, R-V4}. Similarly the pages of Tub are numbered [65] to 113 in sequence following The Magnetic Lady and the numeration continues to 155 at the end of The Sad Shepherd. However, in the section containing Tub, the numbers 70-79 are erroneously repeated. The work was printed by John Dawson Junior for Thomas Walkley ( STC 14754). McKenzie (1972) has shown that a factotum and some of the type in the third volume appeared in other works printed by Dawson. It appears that the printing took place over a period in 1640 and 1641. The masques are not dated at the beginning, but all the other major items carry the date 1640 on their individual title pages, with the exception of The Sad Shepherd and Discoveries, which are dated 1641.

There was no entry in the Stationers’ Register until 17 September 1658:

Ent. T. Walkley . . . a booke called Ben Johnsons Workes, the third volume containing these peeces, vizt., . . . The Magnetick Lady, A Tale of a Tub, The Sad Shepherd . . . vjd      (Plomer, 1913-16, 2.196 )

This delay in entering the book may in part be the result of the long dispute in which Walkley had been engaged from the 1630s as he struggled to establish control of the edition (Marcham, 1931). In this he was hampered because he was a publisher and bookseller, not a printer, and also because, as he claimed in his petition to the House of Lords, 20 December 1648 (H&S, 9.100 ), there were insufficient licensers at work. He could not therefore publish the third volume under his own imprint, a circumstance which may explain why there was no title-page for this volume as a whole. Greg points out, however, that there is some reason to suppose from the quire signatures that space was allowed for introductory matter before the beginning of the section containing the masques (1939-59, 3.1080 ). The first entry in the Register given above may have been occasioned by Walkley’s intention to transfer the ownership, for it is followed shortly afterwards, on 20 November 1658, by:

Master Hum. Moseley

Entred for his copies by vertue of an assignment under the hand and seale of Thomas Walkley all his estate and right in the bookes or copies following, vizt:

Ben Johnsons Workes, the third volume, containing these peeces following . . .

The Magnetick Lady, A Tale of a Tub, The Sad Shepherd . . .

         (Plomer, 1913-16, 2.206 )

On 19 August 1667, Ann Moseley, Humphrey’s widow, transferred her rights to Henry Herringman, one of the booksellers who published F3 in 1692 (Plomer, 1913-14, 2.380-1 ).

***

Here we shall consider three general aspects of the text of Tub: the contents of the text; some aspects of its production; and some indications about the copy-text which formed the basis of Walkley’s edition.

The printed text follows the conventions established, presumably by Dawson, for the third volume in terms of layout and presentation. Like the other plays in it, the decoration and headings are very simple, much less ornamented than those for F2(1) or F2(2) , which was itself in turn less elaborate, but which most likely received some scrutiny by Jonson himself as its sheets were printed before his death. The layout of the individual title-page of Tub matches that of the other plays in the volume, including having a motto and a date (M.DC.XL); but here and elsewhere the author is named as BEN: IOHNSON, a spelling which Jonson might not have approved. All three plays contain a list of persons, but none refers on the title-page to a performance or to an acting company, in contrast with the practice for the three plays in F2(2).

At the end of each Act of Tub there is a ruled line, sometimes rather wavy and broken. Each of the headings for Acts 2, 4, and 5, in slightly larger type than the normal scene titles, follows immediately below this single line. The scheme is similar for the heading of Act 3, but the type is the same size as for normal scene headings and it is the work of Compositor A, rather than B, who set the other three. Speech headings are in italics as elsewhere in the third volume. The massed entries at the beginnings of scenes are also in italics, less elaborate than in the earlier volumes. There are many minor aspects of language, spelling and other conventional details preserved in the text which point directly to Jonsonian practice: these will be considered below in relation to the possible copy-text.

There are some features of the printed text which relate to the circumstances of the play’s composition and original performance, and in particular to the dispute with Inigo Jones. Whatever was done in performance, it appears that Herbert’s instruction for the excision of material relating to Vitruvius Hoop was only partly followed by Jonson, or his successors, when it came to printing (Bawcutt 1996a, 179 : quoted in the Introduction to Tub). There is now no material which directly refers to this character by name, except for the single mention at 5.2.73. But the motion, which Herbert expressly designated for exclusion, has been retained, or at least one can say that what appears in the text of 5.10 might well be what Herbert referred to; but even so, in the absence of a demonstrably earlier version, we cannot be certain how far Jonson modified his original when he came to prepare for printing. Similarly, the Scene Interloping after 4.1 extends the mockery of Jones, and it may well be that it was restored to the text after the public performances, or that Jonson wrote or revised it specifically for inclusion in the copy for the printed version he envisaged. The word ‘interloping’ seems to be Jonson’s way of indicating that the scene in some way crosses a boundary or a restriction. The OED suggests the word means ‘to introduce improperly or out of place’ (Interloping, v. 2). It is unlikely that the acted version would have openly flouted Herbert’s instructions. Jonson was indeed skilled in circumvention and probably had a taste for it, and we should not underestimate his capacity for, and enjoyment of sailing near the wind. In the absence of further evidence, the most likely interpretation is that this printed text is Jonson’s revision after the initial performances and there remains room for speculation about exactly what was presented to the audiences. Nor can we rule out the possibility that what was done at the Cockpit in Drury Lane was different from the version at court several months later. The epilogue also requires comment. It appears to be intended only for the audience at the public performances (‘who come to see a play’), and contains no reference to the performance at court, unlike The Magnetic Lady, with its address specifically directed to the king.

Turning to the production of the text, we find that there are a few errors surviving, as for example some mistakes in lineation (1.3.41-6; 1.5.49-51; 1.6.25-6; 5.7.48-9). The largest identifiable group of uncorrected errors consists of speech heads. There are eight of these: 2.1.38; 2.1.56; 2.2.110; 2.3.13; 4.5.17; 4.6.55; 4.6.94; 5.6.1 (see Collation). Possibly this means that the copy was difficult to read in this respect, errors arising because of alterations made in the playhouse. F3, the 1692 reprint, copies all these errors, except for 2.3.13 and 5.6.1, which might have been corrected by means of simple deduction. Press variants indicate that there was some attempt at proof reading. For this edition we have been able to add to the 42 variants listed by the Oxford editors (H&S, 9.120-1 ). As often happened, these are generally bunched into groups, as on I2v:I3 (where there are 14), K3v (12), O1v:O4 (13), and M3 (3). But in fact the number of corrections is small. Even where there are readings offering alternative meanings, they are straightforward, and their effect upon interpretation is nugatory. Thus there is no doubt that ‘dagger’ is preferable to ‘danger’ (1.1.17) and ‘oild’ to ‘old’ (5.7.31). Many of these corrections are changes in the punctuation, an aspect to which Jonson himself always paid special attention. In the distribution list below it will be seen that there are some 57 punctuation changes. The next most common type of change is to wording or individual letters, amounting to 15. There are 6 changes into italics, and one inverted type is corrected. Again these features may thus evidence difficulties encountered by the printer in interpreting the copy. As will be seen from the imbalance in the majority of the items in the list of stop press corrections, most of the alterations were made quite early in the print run. In most instances three copies out of the 23 consulted is the maximum for State 1. The exceptions are M4, and P1v with its conjugate P4; as well as K3v where the first intervention was apparently quite early, but the second, creating State 3, occurred after perhaps half the copies had been printed. As was normal, it appears that uncorrected sheets were bound into the copies alongside other sheets which had been corrected.

There is only one textual crux: ‘ra’tempt’ (3.1.80). The Oxford editors’ suggestion ‘n’atempt’, which they do not themselves follow, has been adopted here, on the assumption that it is an example of foul case. The anomalous form in the text may possibly have occurred because Jonson was writing in dialect and allowing for verbal clumsiness in the characters. Similarly Tub’s reference to Skelton’s Elinour Rumming as Elinour Bumming (5.7.24) may be an intentional blunder by Jonson, interested as he was in the many mistakes to be made by his characters: but equally it may well be an instance of foul case. There are no places where type has slipped disruptively into other words or lines, but occasionally spaces have appeared between letters, especially in pages which were opened up to allow for corrections (as with ‘i nfinite’, 1.7.31 on K3v, the one page which was opened twice for corrections). Similarly on P4, which was opened only once, the last two letters of ‘postures’ (5.7.45) and the last of ‘Citie’ (5.7.47) have dropped in seven of the copies collated.

The italicised running titles in bold type at the head of each page are enclosed in two rather wavy lines. They appear to have been rather fragile and they probably had to be mended from time to time. An examination of them and of the type used in the running titles suggests that they existed in four different kinds. Normally each of the four is used twice in each quire. The commonest pattern, CBCBEAEA, appears in quires L, M, N, and O, but all four can be found twice in the other full quires, K and P. For the first quire, I, the arrangement is irregular as there is a blank page, but the order is DBCDAAB; and in the short quire Q it is EAC. This is sustained in The Sad Shepherd: see Textual Essay. Eugene Giddens (2003) has also presented information about the timing of the typesetting in relation to other texts in the third volume. He notes that the headline D does not normally appear again in Tub, but is frequent in The Magnetic Lady.

Two compositors appear to have worked on Tub and there is good reason to suppose that the same two were also at work on The Magnetic Lady and The Sad Shepherd.

Compositor A’s work may be characterised by his much more careful counting of spaces in the layout of his pages and this gives most of them a much neater appearance. In particular it can be seen that the indentation of the speech heads, and the spaces which follow before the speech begins, are exactly counted so that vertical lines can be drawn through them to show the accuracy of their justification. Where there is a speech head in mid-line he gives a generous and regular amount of space between the last word of the speech end, the new speech head, and the first word of the new speech. A third characteristic is less regular, but he usually gives only minimum space between the names of the characters at the beginnings of scenes.

Compositor B’s work is in direct contrast to these three aspects. The spaces before speech heads are variable. Similarly, those inserted after the speech heads are distinctly inconsistent, and it is these which most contribute to giving his pages an untidy look in comparison with A’s. This is compounded by his irregular practice with mid-line speech heads. Thirdly, in contrast to A, he is more generous with spaces between the names of characters at the beginnings of scenes. In addition B is less consistent with spaces than A before and after punctuation, and he is also less careful about matching and aligning brackets.

The following selective data specifies instances illustrating these characteristics and differences:

Mid-line speech heads

A: N2 lines 9 12 15; N4 lines 6 8 10 21

B: O4v lines 11 13 23 31 34 45 48; P1 lines 1 3 18 32 39

Scene beginnings

A: small spaces between names: L4v M1 N1v N2 O4 Q1

B: larger spaces between names: N1 N3 N4v O1 P1

Inconsistent spaces with punctuation

B: O4v 3 (Dame) 8 (Come) 14 (Whither with)

Brackets

A: N3v 12 L4v 30 Q1 24

B: N2v 14, 25, 45 N4v 20, 29, 39

Press Corrections

Corrections were made to A’s pages less frequently than to B’s (cf. Distribution Chart)

A: L1 L4v O1v

B: I2 I2v I3 K3v L2 L3v M4 P1v P4 Q2

The following shows the division of the pages between the two compositors in each quire. It must be admitted, however, that on a few occasions the attributions are difficult to make.

Quires

I A [I1] I4v [I1v] I4
B I2 I3v I2v I3
K A
B K1 K4v K1v K4 K2 K3v K2v K3
L A L1 L4v
B L1v L4 L2 L3v L2v L3
M A M1 M4v M2v M3
B M1v M4 M2 M3v
N A N1v N4 N2 N3v
B N1 N4v N2v N3
O A O1v O4
B O1 O4v O2 O3v O2v O3
P A P2 P3v
B P1 P4v P1v P4 P2v P3
Q A Q1
B Q1v Q2

It seems virtually certain that the preparation of the text for publication was anticipated by Jonson himself, who is thought to have made significant detailed preparations for an edition of his work near the end of his life. However, we have no certainty about the nature of the ‘true and perfect copies’ which Walkley claimed to have bought from Sir Kenelm Digby, Jonson’s literary executor, as the basis for his posthumous edition (Marcham, 1931, 226 ). The printer’s copy must have contained many details which reflect Jonson’s practice in preparing others of his plays for printing. The massed entries at the beginning of scenes were his preference, as was the convention of ‘To them’ where additional characters were to arrive during a scene. As with Jonson’s other plays, Tub is divided into acts and scenes. Usually new scenes are begun when there is a change of persons on stage, but there are exceptions, as for the entries of Squire Tub (1.1.22), Father Rosin (1.4.30), Pol Marten (1.6.36), the Neighbours (3.8.35), and Metaphor (4.2.16). The convention adopted does not mark exits when they end the scene (there is an exception to this at 5.7.62). But exits occurring in mid scene are usually noted in the margin, as for Squire Tub (1.1.89), Metaphor (1.5.51), Preamble (1.5.62), Pol Marten (1.6.19), Hilts (2.2.169), Dame Turf (2.2.180), all but Pol Marten and Audrey (4.5.64), and Squire Tub (5.7.59). There is a distinct possibility that these were added by the stage-keeper in readiness for performance. But it should be noted that there are many stage directions in The Sad Shepherd, a play which probably never reached the stage. One may therefore question whether the copy was an autograph, or an autograph with additions by others. Nevertheless many characteristics of Jonson’s spelling and punctuation are preserved in the printed text, even if someone else wrote out the whole of the copy. The following spellings are normally his: canonick, Layicks, Rhetorick, huisher, inough, moneth, peice, phansie, suspitious. There is a preference for ‘doe’ and ‘goe’; and in the frequency of the pronoun forms ‘wee’, ‘hee’, and ‘mee’ (corrected from ‘me’ at 4.2.21). It has to be admitted however, that inconsistencies in some of these forms may be the result of compositorial choice, rather than Jonson’s practice; and it is also true that Jonson’s autographs show that he himself was not always consistent about them. No doubt because of the vigorous language of much of the dialogue, there is a high frequency of abbreviated forms including o’my, o’the or o’th’, o’that; i’the, i’you, i’those. Some abbreviations are closely connected with the dialect of the play, as with he’ull, and ’un, and ’hun. The printed text follows Jonson’s practice in the use of digraphs as in ‘Caesar’ (1.3.52; 3.6.18) and ‘faeces’ (1.5.68). However, the particular type used for this double letter in Tub appears to be damaged whereas it is complete for ‘faeces’ in The Magnetic Lady (Ind.23).

Apart from these orthographic items there are typical Jonsonian printing features in the use of italics for proper names, geographical names, and for Latin. Hyphens are used for many composite words, such as bride-groome, Tile-kill, Totten-court, Cloath-breech. Brackets are a feature of the text and follow Jonson’s usual practice for interjected phrases (‘with the new yeare,’ 1.1.82) and clauses (‘Because . . . yeare,’ 1.1.48-9). These all indicate some closeness to an autograph.

As indicated in the introduction, F3 has no independent authority, but it should be said that it is visually a handsome version. It follows F2 in placing Tub after The Magnetic Lady. Textually it is close to F2, as for example in the variant spellings for the speech heads Hug./Hugh on the same page. Most of the corrections it adopts are self-evident. The stage directions in Act Five are standardized from roman to italic. Perhaps the least attractive feature of F3 is that it does not offset shared partial lines of verse, a matter over which Jonson himself and his earlier printers were generally consistent.

Tub was reprinted in the collected editions by Whalley and Gifford , who changed the divisions of the scenes and added a considerable number of stage directions. Separate editions of the play were prepared by Hans Scherer ( Materialien zur Kunde des älteren Englischen Dramas, 19, Leuven, 1913), by F. M. Snell (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Yale, 1915 ), and by Martin Butler ( The Selected Plays of Ben Jonson, vol. 2, Cambridge, 1989 ).

In this Cambridge edition the spelling has been modernized, but it has been found desirable to preserve Jonson’s representation of rural dialect forms from Middlesex. Punctuation has also been modernized, as Jonson’s carefully worked-out principles might be confusing for a modern reader. For example, Jonson usually inserted a comma before the ‘and’ after penultimate items in lists and pairs (Prologue 10). He tended also to use long sentences, perhaps on a Latin model. He supported and subdivided these by heavy punctuation, and this has been significantly lightened. For example, Chanon Hugh’s speech at 1.1.44-53 is punctuated in the original as one continuous sentence. Similarly, commas separating grammatical subjects from their verbs, a common usage by Jonson, have been removed as in ‘The greatest Clarkes, are not the wisest men’ (1.3.14). The lighter punctuation offered here may offer greater fluency when the text is read aloud, or at a performance.

COPIES

The following copies of Tub have been collated for this edition:

1. Cambridge University Library Brett-Smith a.7 (Cam1)

2. Cambridge University Library Keynes D.6.23 (Cam2)

3. Cambridge University Library Syn 4.61.20 (Cam3)

4. Cambridge University Library Syn 4.64.14 (Cam4)

5. Cambridge University Library Syn 4.64.15 (Cam5)

6. British Library 79.l.4 (BL1)

7. British Library c.39.k.9* (BL2)

8. British Library 1482 d.15 (BL3)

9. Bodleian Library Douce I.303 (Bod1)

10. Bodleian Library Don.d.66 (Bod2)

11. Bodleian Library Vet.A2 d.73 (Bod3)

12. Bodleian Library Gibson 518 (Bod4)

13. Bodleian Library Gibson 520 (Bod6)

14. David Gants’s copy (Gants)

15. Folger Shakespeare Library 4 (Folg4)

16. Folger Shakespeare Library 6 (Folg6)

17. Wellington, Turnbull Library (Tb)

18. Leeds Brotherton Strong Room Engl. fol. 1640 JON (Lds1)

19. Leeds Brotherton Lt q JON (Lds2)

20. HRHRC Austin Pforz. 560 (TxU6)

21. HRHRC Austin Pr 2600 1640 vol 1 copy 1 Stark 5433 (TxU4)

22. HRHRC Austin Pr 2600 1640 vol 2 copy 2 Woodward Ruth 1 (TxU2)

23. HRHRC Austin Wh J738 + B641 (TxU8)

List of Variants (in order of imposition)

STATE 1 STATE 2 STATE 3
I4v 72
4 zay,* ~.
Turfe;* ~,
36 uppi-nions* uppinions
45 married:* ~?
I4 71
36 High-gate High-ga
I2 67
12 appointed appointe
15 Thirdborough Thirdborough
19 IONE ~,
20 MADGE ~,
21 KATE, ~.
I2v 68
2 State State
Club Club
4 Clownes Clownes
Conſtables , to day Conſtables,to day
7 high Conſtable high Conſtable
I3 69
6 keepe, ~^
11 errand, ~^
12 What! Squire, What, Squire!
17 danger dagger
20 ſpirit her ſonne ſpirither, ſonne,
28 would ~,
29 Tripoly. ~;
31 morning; ~,
33 y-ſtyl’d ~,
K3v 78
1 Madam! Madam , ~
4 man, manſ ~
5 Poets; ~, ~
6 ſuch; ~ ~,
7 me! ~ ~:
8 Ladiee Ladies ~
him; ~: ~
9 Conntre-Madams Countri-Madams ~
11 ſake, ~
diſpoſe diſpenſe ~
cw An And ~
K3 77
31 wiſh ~;
L1 71(81)
24 Hine! ~.
you. ~?
42 apperill: ~,
46 valew value
50 dead, ~;
Tiburne; ~,
L4v 78(88)
3 was. was.--.
6 me. ~?
ſpights: ~.
15 Sir, ſpeake. Sir? ſpeake?
23 obey! ~.
L2 73(83)
4 No. ~;
8 Bridge Bride
ſo ere ſoere
11 there; ~:
27 [omit] a
L3v 76(86)
26 froſt--bitten froſt-bitten
37 ſhall [a inverted] ſhall
44 is: ~,
M4 85(95)
26 ſonne! ~.
30 ſoune ſonne
M3v 84(94)
10 me; ~,
33 Wiſpe! ~.
M3 83(93)
40 see, ~^
41 par dee: ~^
42 zaith, ~^
O1v 96(106)
4 busines ~,
5 me mee
18 here ~,
33 weekes, ~^
35 this ~,
blade, ~?
36 thee, ~^
37 earth, ~^
43 heare, ~;
48 key, ~;
cubbard. ~^
50 I,
O4 101(111)
18 yet,
[For O1v:4 one might argue that these columns should be reversed, and that the right-hand entries are the earlier state, but on balance the present interpretation looks correct.]
P1v 104(114)
23 I man my man
49 Ladies Ladie
P4 109(119)
29 old oild
P3 107(117)
8 Pol--marten Pol-Marten
16 it. ~!
Q2 113(123)
2 enter.* ~!
20 FINIS [omit]
In the copies inspected, the variants marked * have not been seen, but they are listed by H&S.

DISTRIBUTION OF VARIANTS

I2

State 1: 5, 11, 13, 17

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19

I2v:3

State 1: 5, 11, 13, 17

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

I4

State 1: 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19,

State 2: 13, 15

I4v

State 1: [Not seen: cf. H&S]

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,

K3

State 1: 5, 11, 17

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19,

K3v

State 1: 12

State 2: 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20

State 3: 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23

L1:4v

State 1: 9, 14, 20

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23

L2:3v

State 1: 19

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

M3

State 1: 6, 12, 15

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23

M3v

State 1: 12, 15

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

M4

State 1: 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22

State 2: 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 23

O1v:4

State 1: 3, 10

State 2: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

P1v:4

State 1: 5, 9, 11, 14, 15, 17, 20

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23

P2v:3

State 1: 18

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19

Q2

State 1: 10, 13 [with FINIS]

State 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 [without FINIS]