| | | | | | |
Per. |May 20, 1608 |1609| 1609| 1611|1619| | |R |Not in F1
| | | | | | | | |F3 from Q4
| | | | | | | | |
Oth. |Oct. 6, 1621 |1622| | | | | |P |Independent
==========================================================================

[8] In the table of Quarto editions may be noted four entries with the
words "or 1619" added to the date which appears on the title-page. These
four plays, the Roberts Quartos of _The Merchant of Venice_ and _A
Midsummer-Night's Dream_ of 1600, the third Quarto of _Henry V_, 1608,
the second Quarto of _King Lear_, 1608, along with the 1619 Quartos of
_The Merry Wives_ and _Pericles_, an undated Quarto of _The Whole
Contention_ (the earlier form of _2_ and _3 Henry VI_), the Quarto of
_Sir John Oldcastle_, dated 1600, and the Quarto of _A Yorkshire
Tragedie_, dated 1619, have been shown by Mr. A. W. Pollard, with the
cooeperation of Mr. W. W. Greg, to have been put on the market at the
same time, and Mr. W. J. Neidig has proved from typographical evidence
that the title-pages of all nine were set up in succession in 1619. A
very curious problem is thus presented, and the motives for the
deception practised, apparently by the printers Pavier and Jaggard, have
not been satisfactorily cleared up; but at present it appears likely
that in the case of these nine Quartos the correct date of publication
should be 1619, and that, in the case of the first two mentioned, the
question of the comparative authority of the Heyes and Fisher Quartos
respectively as against that of the Roberts Quartos should be settled
against the latter. This last point is the only part of this remarkable
discovery which is of importance in determining the text, as the Quartos
dated 1608 and 1619 were already known to be mere reprints of earlier
ones.

[Page Heading: The First Folio]

We come now to the publication of the First Folio, the most important
single volume in the history of the text of Shakespeare. On November 8,
1623, the following entry occurs in the Stationers' Register:

Mr. Blount: Isaak Jaggard. Entred for their copie under the hands of
M^r Doctor Worrall and M^r Cole, Warden, M^r William Shakspeers
Comedyes, Histories and Tragedyes, soe manie of the said copyes as
are not formerly entred to other men viz^t, Comedyes. The Tempe