10 S. XL MAY 29, 1909.J NOTES AND QUERIES.
423
printed in 1631, and these were needed to
make the collection complete. Forming
only a fragment of an intended book, they
had apparently never been published, and
the proprietorship of them seems to have
passed to Richard Meighen, whose name
appeared on the title-page of some copies
of the 1616 volume ; for the three plays as
printed in 1631 were now issued by Meighen
with a general title-page :
" The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. Containing these Playes, Viz. 1. Bar- tholomew Fayre. 2. The Staple ot Newes. 3. The Divell is an Asse. London, Printed for Richard Meighen. 1640."
Whether or not this title-page was intended
to refer to more than the three plays is not
clear, but it is sometimes found, with those
plays, prefixed to the 1640-41 volume. It
is, however, so rarely found that it is clear
either that it was cancelled or that a small
number only of copies was printed. Perhaps
Meighen brought out these plays in a
separate volume, but withdrew the book,
possibly because the proprietors of the
1640-41 collection took over from him his
stock of the three plays. Of course the
word " containing " in this title-page may
have been intended merely to show that
the three plays named were included in the
book among other pieces ; in that case the
title-page was probably suppressed as inade-
quate and misleading. My own view, that
this title-page was intended for use with
the three plays only, receives some support
from the fact that with a large-paper copy
of the 1616 volume which I possess there
are bound up (in a seventeenth-century
binding) the three 1631 plays, with Meighen's
title-page of 1640. This volume, it will be
seen, contains the whole of the folio
edition of his works which was prepared for
the press by Jonson himself. A similar
volume (believed by the cataloguer to be
unique) is in the Huth Library, but Mr.
Huth informs me that it has no general
title-page to the added plays of 1631.
have seen a large-paper copy of the 1640-41
volume, in contemporary calf, without any
general title-page. Mr. Hoe has a copy oi
the whole works (1616, 1631, 1640-41) on
large-paper, which contains Meighen's title-
page. This copy is in two volumes, rebound.
To sum up : My conclusions are that
Jonson began the preparation of a second
volume of his works ; that three plays were
printed, in 1631, and laid aside, owing to
the author's illness ; that in 1640 the
owners of the " copy " in various pieces
came to an agreement for the publication of
the whole in one volume ; that Meighen,
who had acquired Allot's rights in the plays
printed in 1631, issued those plays, some-
times with a general title-page dated 1640 ;
that either by arrangement among the
booksellers or by the action of individual
purchasers, Meighen's three plays were often
bound up with the 1640-41 collection ; and
that Meighen's title-page was in most cases
cancelled as being inapplicable to the whole
volume. It is not the case, as stated by
Lowndes, that there were two separate
editions, in 1640 and 1641 ; nor is it the
case, as stated by Gifford, that the 1631
plays are badly printed, and that Jonson
- ave himself no concern in the printing of
them. G. A. AITKEN.
21, Church Row, Hampstead.
SHAKESPEARIAN^..
1 ROMEO AND JULIET ' : THE EAKL or
SOUTHAMPTON. It is possible that the lines,
in the ballroom scene in this drama (I. v.
32-42) refer to the marriage of the parents
of the Earl of Southampton the dedicatee
of the two Shakespeare poems. Prof.
A. F. Pollard in his article on Henry Wrio-
thesley, the second Earl, in the ' Diet. Nat.
Biog.,' vol. Ixiii. p. 153, gives the date of
his marriage to Mary, daughter of Anthony
Browne, first Viscount Montague, as 19 Feb.,
1565/6.
This date is in accord with the thirty years mentioned in the tragedy. Secondly, the third Earl was a ward, as was the son of Lucentio in the play. Thirdly, we are told that the wardship expired " two years ago." The third Earl was born in 1573 ; and 1573 + 21+2=1596, or about the date at which the drama was written.
That Romeo was a Montague, as was also the Earl through his mother's family, is probably a coincidence ; for in Brooke's poem we also have Montague as the family name. But, on the other hand, the tragedy tells us that Lucentio 's wedding was cele- brated on Pentecost. In 1565 Pentecost occurred on 10 June ; in 1566 on 2 June. The ' D.N.B.' gives, as already stated, 19 February. Prof. Pollard has advised me that he obtained the date of this marriage from the Hampshire Field Club Papers and Proceedings for 1889 and 1898 ; but not having these Proceedings with him, he was unable to verify. I have made efforts, both here and in England, to obtain a copy of the Hampshire publications, but without success. I shall, therefore, be much in- debted to any one who has access to a copy
