 |
 |
Tom, Jon may have read the entry on Ponsonby in that never-too-much-consulted Spenser Encyclopedia by Michael Brennan, who says of him: 'He never owned a printing press himself but used those of such noted printers as Field, Windet, Orwin, Wolfe, and Creede. He was best known by Elizabethans as a bookseller'. Incidentally, the two who know most about the FE in Spenser's FQ are Hiroshi Yamashita and Toshiyuki Suzuki. Cheers, Bert At 12:29 AM 2002-07-21 -0100, you wrote: >Dear Jon, Can you remeber where you read about Ponsonbie? I don't tink that is >what happened, but I am doing a forensic search on FE,and anything I can know >--more than I do now-- would be useful. Who uses "getting granular?" How >awful! Thanks you for replying. Best to you and Tobie. tpr > >[log in to unmask] wrote: > >> I can't contribute to the nitty-gritty (or, as some say >> now, 'get granular') on this subject; just some >> questions? I recall reading some time back that >> Ponsonby was more a publisher than a printer, which I >> took to mean that he acquired manuscripts, farmed out >> some if not most of the printing, then sold the books. >> He was more the well-connected entrepreneur, maintaining >> for his clients a certain distance from ink-stained >> drudgery, than the printer who occupied something like >> Errour's den. But is this true? If so, might it be the >> case that sheets would come to Ponsonby after the >> possibility of (further) correction had passed? >> >> Are many errors apparent in Book III that were not >> listed among the Faults Escaped? If not, maybe >> experience showed Ponsonby or somebody in his shop that >> the printer (if it wasn't Ponsonby) had better be more >> careful. >> >> I recall, one day in the Folger, holding in my two hands >> copies of the 1590 FQ and the 1590 Arcadia, both of >> course published by Ponsonby, very similar in typography >> and size. Same printers? Anything to be learned about >> FQ from studies of the 1590 Arcadia? >> >> Cheers, Jon Q. >> > Some evidence that Spenser was involved in compiling the list of Faults >> > Escaped: a very few of the corrections seem to be authorial revisions. >> > >> > Example: in most (but not all) copies of the 1590 quarto, FQ 1.6.25.5 reads >> > "The Antelope, and Wolfe both swift and cruell"; but in at least one copy, >> > the line reads "The Antelope, and Wolfe both fierce and fell," which is >> > also the reading given in the list of Faults Escaped. I'm not saying that >> > the second reading is more Spenserian than the first, but it's the kind of >> > change that authors make and compositors (usually) don't (I think). The >> > fact that there's a press variant as well as a notice in the corrigenda is >> > tantalizing: was Spenser really in the printshop, reading the freshly >> > printed sheets as they came off the press? Maybe. >> > >> > Other instances in which the list of Faults Escaped seems to record >> > authorial revisions (as opposed to just proofreading) include the >> > substitution of "Timons" for "Cleons" in 1.9.9.5, of "She" for "He" in >> > 3.12.42 (twice), and of "her" for "him" in the same stanza. To be sure, a >> > proofreader who was really getting into the poem could have figured out >> > (from 1.9.4) that the pronouns in 3.12.42 needed fixin', and a fanatically >> > interested proofreader might have noticed that, in 1.9.4, the name of >> > Arthur's tutor is given (twice) as Timon, and that Cleons is the same guy. >> > (Presumably the name is a fossil remnant of an early draft, in which Arthur >> > was schooled by someone whose name recalls Gk. kleos 'praise'; cf. Arthur's >> > flirtation with Praysdesire in 2.9.39.) Again, though, this seems to me the >> > kind of thing that an _author_ notices and cares about -- if he cares at >> > all, which apparently Spenser did. >> > >> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask] >> > East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c >> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > A.C.Hamilton [log in to unmask] Cappon Professor Emeritus Queen's University, Canada Phone & Fax: 613- 544-6759