Dear Scott,
this is perfect. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I'll seek this out immediately.

Best wishes,

Stuart.

________________________________
From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Lucas [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 4:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 'Froward' / 'Forward' - VI.x.24.7

Dear Stuart (and all),

The one article I know of about the 1611 edition is Steven Galbraith, "Spenser's First Folio: The Build-It-Yourself Edition," Spenser Studies 21 (2006):  21-49.  Galbraith calls the 1611 edition "bibliographically unstable," since any single copy of the text may contain material printed as early as 1609 and as late as 1613.  The second part of the Faerie Queene may exist in any single edition with a 1611 title page as either an unsold leftover from the 1609 separate folio issue or as a new printing undertaken in 1612-13.  So some of the 1611 editions evidently do contain the "forward" reading, since they contain the 1609 FQ, while others incorporating the 1612-13 printing introduce "froward."

Galbraith suggests that the printer Lownes "did not see fit to invest a great deal of time and money in Spenser's first folio," which may suggest that "froward" is a textual error that simply was not caught due to carelessness (41).  However, Lownes himself (at least in 1611) claimed on his title page that the text he used for the collected works was "carefully corrected."  Did this also apply to the 1612-13 new printing of material for the collected works?  It is an interesting question to explore!

Scott

Scott Lucas
Professor of English
The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina
Charleston, SC  29409

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On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 6:27 AM, Stuart Hart <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I am currently researching the textual crux of VI.x.24.7-9 involving the spatial positioning of the three Graces.

In the 1596 and 1609 editions of the FQ, the lines reads:

'That two of them still forward seem'd to bee,
But one still towards she'd her selfe afore:
That good should from vs goe, then come in greater store.'

In the 1611 edition, line 7 has been changed to read: 'That two of them still froward seem'd to bee'. Much has been written about the implications of this rerendering of line 7. By positioning two Graces with their backs to the viewer, and one looking 'afore', the sugegstion is that it is better to give than to receive. This interpretation is dependent upon  us reading 'then' as a conjunction ('than') rather than as an adverb ('then') as in the 1596 and 1609 editions. As Geller (1972) and Bates (1992) acknowledge, this reordering of the Graces' position invites a more altruistic reading of their significance, and indeed their role in relation to the book's titular virtue of courtesy. It encourages us to to read it in the light of Christian charity.

My question to the list is whether anything has been written specifically about the 1611 edition of the FQ. Do we have any sense as to whether it is a good copy of the text? Do we know whether the editors intentionally changed 'forward' to 'froward'? Could it be seen as a wilfull revision...perhaps working from Spenser's manuscri[pt, or is it merely a textual error?

If any one on the list has a knowledge of a study that might be relevant to my questions then I would be extremely grateful.

As always, many thanks in advance,

Stuart Hart
PhD researcher,
University of Birmingham.


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