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LUCRECE
The text and
typography
of the first
edition.
Discrepan-
cies among
extant
exemplars.
The Bod-
leian copy, I.
Unique
readings.
V
Harrison and Field's first edition of 1 5-94 is the sole
authentic source of the text of the poem. That alone followed
the author's manuscript. The later editions were set up from
those that went before. Small typographical changes were
introduced into the reissues, but all the alterations may be put
to the credit of correctors of the press acting on their own
responsibility, excepting possibly in the case of the edition of
16 16 J which came out soon after Shakespeare's death. In that
volume there are traces of a clumsy editorial revision.
It is improbable that the author supervised the production
of the first edition, but greater care was taken in its typography
than in the case of any other of Shakespeare's works, — not
excepting IJenus and Adonis. The work is not free from
misprints nor from other typographical irregularities. But an
effort was made to reduce their number to the lowest possible
limit. The original edition was printed off slowly j the type
was kept standing after the first impressions left the office, and
small changes were subsequently introduced into the standing-
type, with the result that the itw surviving copies of the first
edition show small discrepancies among themselves. One
impression is freer from typographical errors than another, or
a correction which has been made in one copy, with a view
to improving the sense or the grammar, is absent from another
copy. The alterations are not always intelligent, and it is
unlikely that Shakespeare had any hand in them.
The copy in the Bodleian Library which is reproduced
in this volume — one of two in that library — has at least five
readings which are met with nowhere else. They were appar-
ently all deemed to be defects, and were afterwards changed.
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