- description
- # Discrepancies of Spelling
## Overview
This section, titled "Discrepancies of spelling," is a textual analysis of spelling variations found within a specific edition of Shakespeare's works. It details inconsistencies in the spelling of common words, highlighting how these variations might affect the reader's understanding and the printer's adherence to a consistent system. The section is part of a larger collection related to facsimile editions of Shakespeare's poems.
## Context
This analysis is contained within the [Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, Sonnets, and Pericles (Facsimile Editions)](arke:01KG6S3KNZT62WVVW4VT384KPF) collection. It was extracted from the file named [pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt](arke:01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA) and is part of the [PDF Workflow Main Test 2026-01-30T00:26:53](arke:01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y) collection. The section follows the discussion on "The misprints of 1593." and precedes the section on "Capital letters."
## Contents
The text meticulously lists numerous examples of inconsistent spelling from the 1593 edition of *Venus and Adonis*. It notes variations such as "kis" and "kisse," "sun" and "sunne," "blood" and "bloud," and "eyes" and "eies," among many others. The author suggests that these discrepancies may stem from a lack of careful proofreading or potentially reflect the author's manuscript, which might have included contractions or non-standard spellings. The section also briefly touches upon the use of contractions and the ampersand symbol (&) as possible attempts by the printer to manage line length, while acknowledging the possibility of them reflecting authorial practice. Further examples are provided, illustrating the use of a hyphen above a vowel to represent 'm' or 'n' in specific words.
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- Discrepancies of Spelling
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- Discrepancies of spelling.
for ‘Within’ (235); ‘aud’ for ‘and’ (301); ‘bnt’ for ‘but’ (393); ‘Ho’ for ‘He’ (545); ‘nor’ for ‘not’ (615); ‘the th’ impartial’ for ‘th’impartial’ (748); ‘had’ for ‘was’ (1054); ‘crop’s’ for ‘crops’ (1175). None of these are likely to mislead. But misprints are not the main defects of the volume. A more serious flaw lies in the careless discrepancies which characterize the spelling of common words. Very little time must have been spent on the revision of proof-sheets of a book in which some of the commonest words were spelt indifferently two or three ways in contiguous stanzas. Elizabethan spelling was impatient of strict law, but well-printed books observed within their limits a definite system in the treatment of ordinary words. In the first issue of *Venus and Adonis* chaos reigns supreme. In the same stanzas we have both ‘kis’ (207) and ‘kisse’ (209), and both ‘sun’ (193) and ‘sunne’ (198), while elsewhere (750) we meet with a third variant in ‘sonne.’ Similar irregularities are ‘blood’ (555) and ‘bloud’ (1122); ‘bore’ (1003) and ‘boare’ (1112); ‘desier’ (36) and ‘desire’ (547); ‘eyes’ (120) and ‘eies’ (1052); ‘flood’ (824) and ‘floud’ (in ‘floud-gates’, 53); ‘flower’ (8) and ‘floure’ (1055); ‘inchaunt’ (145) and ‘inchanting’ (247); ‘lion’ (1093) and ‘lyon’ (884); ‘litle’ (132) and ‘little’ (1179); ‘pray’ (i. e. ‘prey’, 58) and ‘praie’ (1097); ‘rain’ (360) and ‘raine’ (71); ‘sayes’ (851) and ‘saies’ (1173); ‘skie’ (485) and ‘skye’ (815); ‘spite’ (173) and ‘spight’ (1133); ‘in spite of’ (173) and ‘despight of’ (751); ‘spirit’ (one syllable, 882) and ‘sprite’ (181); ‘sproong’ (1168) and ‘sprong’ (1171).
The occasional use of contractions and of the symbol ‘&’ for ‘and’ is probably an endeavour on a clumsy printer’s part to prevent the over-running of the line in which they are present. But it is just possible that they reproduce a characteristic of the author’s manuscripts. In Shakespeare’s extant signatures, some of the letters are represented by the abbreviations.
G
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50 VENUS AND ADONIS
tive symbols. Nevertheless a careful printer setting up type from a manuscript which admitted contractions would expand them as a matter of course. In the 1593 text of *Venus and Adonis* the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ are in the twenty-one following instances represented by the cursive abbreviation of a hyphen above the preceding vowel, viz.—‘lēg’ (83), ‘thē’ (= ‘then,’ twice in 137), ‘strēgthles’ (153), ‘frō’ (167, 443, and 1050), ‘strōg’ (297), ‘dūbe’ (406 and 1146), ‘wōūding’ (432), ‘non-paimēt’ (521), ‘hādling’ (560), ‘dissēble’ (641), ‘thē’ (= ‘them,’ 666 and 899), ‘hoūds’ (678), ‘drēcht’ (1054), ‘cāst’ (= ‘canst,’ 1077), ‘vpō’ (1170), ‘cōpares’ (1176).
Capital letters.
- title
- Discrepancies of spelling.