Transcript
Re apostrophes & forms like ha’s, fare’s etc. Have you noticed what a spate there is of these in Coriolanus I. i.? Things like to th/to’th’ etc?* [Footnote: ‘*’erst th’ourt (=thou ’rt)’.] What will you do with these? Insert the apostrophe where essential & banish the unnecessary? It affects the By’th’ question I raised in the last set of queries.
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Contractions
‘Some louing Friends conuey the Emp. hence’ [a full line] {1} Tit. And. last speech.
I don’t think, on reflection, that you can be consistent in practice here. “Emp.” will look as silly as D.
? Expand titles but not other licenses indulged in for keeping within the line?
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Bait and Bate
Bait (sb. & vb.) is always spelt with ai/ay in F1 except in this one case in 2 Henry VI
Bate (= abate, abatement) is spelt with a in F1 except in M. of V., IV.i. where it is spelt ‘baite’ and corrected in F2 to ‘bate’.
Bate (= beat the wings) is spelt with ai in T. of S. IV. i. and with ay in 1 Henry IV, IV. i and the spelling is not corrected in F2.
The first example of bait spelt with a in O.E.D. is 1635, anr. ex. 1647, and anr. (Somerville’s Chase) 1735.
The first example of bate (=abate) spelt with ai in O.E.D. is 1642, anr. example (Crashaw) 1650.
Bail and Bale
Bail (sb. & vb.) is always spelt with ai or ay in F1 except in this one example in 2 Henry VI.
Bale which occurs only once (Coriolanus I. i) is spelt ‘baile’ in F1 and the spelling survived till Theobald (according to Camb.).
Baleful is always spelt with a as the stressed stem vowel.
The O.E.D. has two examples of bail spelt with aa or a: ‘baalde’ (Studley, Seneca Herc. Oet., 1581) and ‘bale’ (Greene, C.C.).
From this it would appear that although the spellings of these words were generally kept apart there was a tendency to confuse them occasionally. Somewhat similar cases are ‘bain’d’ for ‘baned’ (poisoned) M. of V., IV. i. ‘hail’d’ for ‘haled’, T. of S., V. i. Can you make a general rule to cover this kind of thing? I am sure there is a lot of it such as wring/ring, course/coarse etc. The difficulty is that some words were as often confused in spelling as not (e.g. wrack/rack, right/rite) and oth[ers only] occasionally so (e.g. bale/bail etc.).
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Two slips and a sheet, formerly clipped together. The sheet, which begins ‘Bait and Bate’, is typed.
{1} The square brackets are original.
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