money in lavish gifts to sycophants and flatterers, and in feasting and dress, which, with its stronghold about the very throne of England, was impoverishing the nation with its exactions, and enervating it with its example. Next in importance is the satire upon the idle, credulous, almost diseased, appetite of the public for transitory news, and upon the unprincipled gatherers, makers, and vendors of such news. Besides these two major themes, the play contains a whole bundle of minor satiric themes: projectors and bubble projects, typified in Cymbal and his news-exchange; the profane wit which Dare put on any visor to deride The wretched, or with buffon license jest typified in the covey of jeerers; the mercenary herald, typified in Piedmantle; the unprincipled courtier, in Fitton; the scheming lawyer, in Picklock; the quacksalver, in Almanach; the cowardly and venal army-officer, in Shunfield; the insipid but popular rimester, in Madrigal; the undiscerning dramatic critic, in the 'ridiculous gossips' of the Induction and the Intermeans-all these Jonson mustered for flagellation in this singularly potent drama. The Staple of News is a difficult play. With the possible exception of Cynthia's Revels, no other play of Jonson's yields up so small a part of its real meaning at the first reading. Though I have studied it for many months, I still discover new meanings daily. As the proportions of the glossary included in this volume will show, the play is particularly interesting from a lexical point of view: it contains an unusually large percentage of obsolete and archaic words and uses, and a considerable number of what seem to be very rare, or even entirely exceptional, uses. Moreover, notwithstanding his satiric wrath, Jonson seems here to have delighted in language for its own sake: he revels in word-plays, in double meanings, and even in triple meanings. Again, the play contains a very large number of allusions to contemporary events. Thoroughly to realize the meaning of it, one should be saturated with the social and political history of the time. In my attempt to throw light upon it in the notes and glossary I have had in mind not so much the needs of the erudite few, as of that larger class who would read it with scholarly interest, and read it more often, if the means were at hand of reading it more intelligently. I owe hearty thanks to Professor Albert S. Cook for advice in numerous matters of form, and for the stimulus of his criticism; to Dr. Herbert S. Mallory, whose task of editing Poetaster has kept him always within hailing distance, for help in many a difficulty; to Dr. John M. Berdan for the privilege of collating his copy of the Folio; to Mr. Lucius H. Holt and to Mr. William S. Johnson for helpful suggestions; and to Mr. Andrew Keogh of the Yale Library for aid in bibliographical matters. A portion of the expense of printing this thesis has been borne by the Modern Language Club of Yale University from funds placed at its disposal by the generosity of Mr. George E. Dimock of Elizabeth, New Jersey, a graduate of Yale in the Class of 1874. YALE UNIVERSITY, Feb. 8, 1905. D. W. The Staple of News was first printed in folio in 1631, and probably it was then put into circulation, either as a separate pamphlet or bound with Bartholomew Fair and The Devil is an Ass. Copies of this original edition were, in 1641, bound into the second volume of the First Folio of Jonson's collected works.1 Our play appears, therefore, in all the collected editions. These are as follows: (1) the First Folio, just mentioned; (2) the 'Third Folio,' a doublecolumn edition in one volume, 1692; (3) a booksellers' edition, 1716 [1717]; (4) Peter Whalley's 'corrected' edition, 1756; (5) John Stockdale's reprint of Whalley's edition (together with the works of Beaumont and Fletcher), 1811; (6) William Gifford's 'critical' edition, 1816 (second edition, 1846); (7) Barry Cornwall's one-volume edition, 1838; (8) Lieut.-Col. Francis Cunningham's three-volume re-issue (with some minor variations) of Gifford's edition, 1871; (9) the same in nine volumes, 1875 (now the standard edition). The Catalogue of the British Museum shows that Jonson's plays were printed in two volumes at Dublin in 1799, and no doubt The Staple of News was included. Of these editions, only the first, from which the text of this present work is taken, is of great importance; and of the others, only the second, third, fourth, and sixth call for any discussion. The second volume of the First Folio, which contains the original edition of our play, has been much discussed. Some of the title-pages in it are dated 1631, some 1640, 1 The first volume of this Folio was printed in 1616. A reprint of this volume, made in 1640, is sometimes called the 'Second Folio.' |