Item 7 - Letter from W. W. Greg to R. B. McKerrow

1 single sheet

Park Lodge, Wimbledon Common, London, S.W.19.—Discusses the signatures of Nashe’s Summer’s Last Will and Testament.

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Park Lodge, Wimbledon Common, London, S.W.19
4 Nov. 33.

Dear McKerrow

I wonder whether you have ever worried over Summer’s Last Will since you finished your Nashe?.

One small point I can add to your description. {1} F1 is mis-signed ‘D’ in all copies. In copy a at the BM the D has been erased & an F stamped in by hand. F2–4 are of course always D2–4.

Now it looks as if this most unusual misprint ought to be connected with the cancelling of C3–4. Query did they, in setting up these four pages omit a whole chunk of text (equal to 14 pages about), & then go merrily on with sheet “D”, only discovering the error when the latter was printed off? If so sheets D-E were printed to replace C3–4 & contain the matter of the original C3–4 plus the omitted matter. This does not seem very likely, seeing that the text runs on without any dislocation or obvious adjustment. Of course the large type directions & song of E2 & E2v might be an adjustment to make the matter fit: but similar large type songs occur on H1–2v where there is no apparent need for adjustment!

I wish you would just consider this—if it had not already occurred to you—and let me know what you make of it. I don’t see any obvious chunk of matter that might have been omitted or added.

Ever yours
W. W. Greg

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Letter-head of the Malone Society (Greg is listed as Hon. General Editor). This letter was formerly inserted between pp. 72 and 73 of McKerrow’s own copy of his Works of Nashe, vol. iii (Adv. c. 25. 74), though it relates to a passage on a different page (see below).

{1} The reference is to the words ‘Leaf F 1 is signed F in a’ on the penultimate line of the Works of Nashe, Vol. III, p. 227. In the copy from which this letter was removed, McKerrow has underlined the second ‘F’ and written ‘over printed’ in the margin.