Bartholomew Fair: A Comedy

by Ben Jonson

[ archive.org/details/workesofbenjamin00jons]

Any transcription of a 1910 edition of a Jacobean text will run into some minor problems, and “Bartholomew Fair” poses its own special set of challenges. The goal of the Everyman’s Library edition was to create a readable text, but editorial standards have changed since it was first published. Certain words from the Folio were censored. For example, “t—” is substituted for “turd”. The Everyman’s Library edition frequently spells out words that are contractions in the Folio, for example, substituting in for i’ and have for ha’. The Folio includes many stage directions, but there are inconsistencies, errors, and apparent omissions. As a corrective, the editor of the 1910 edition added more stage directions than more recent editors would. In the Folio, stage directions are printed in the margins to indicate that the action happens during the dialogue, and some lines are printed to the right of others to indicate simultaneous dialogue, for example, during Nightingale’s song in Act III. The 1910 edition prints the text without columns or margins. Consequently some stage directions were changed, and the dialogue is printed sequentially, making it harder for the reader to get a sense of the stage action.

In general, this transcription retains the text of the Everyman’s Library edition. Censored words have been restored, and a few errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in the character titles have been corrected, and character names in stage directions have been spelled out. Following the Folio’s conventions, the 1910 text italicizes text to set off songs or lines from the play within a play, though somewhat inconsistently. This use of italics has been made consistent. In the 1910 text, character titles preceding dialogue in a regular typeface are italicized, and character titles preceding the italicized text of songs or the play within the play are printed in a regular typeface. The html-based files of this transcription retain this use of contrasting regular and italicized typefaces. In the text version of this transcription, all character titles preceding dialogue and in stage directions for entrances are capitalized. The character titles of the puppets in Act V have been adjusted to help clarify which lines are part of the play within a play.

The following changes to the Everyman’s Library text are noted:

• Cover: The cover has been edited from the original dust jacket.
• Title page: The 1910 text, which is part of an anthology of Jonson’s plays, only has a title page for the collection. The text included in the title page for this etext is based on the text of the Folio’s title page.
• p. 189: Waspe. Good master Hornet, t—in your teeth—Changed “t—in” to “turd in” as in the Folio.
• p. 189: and t—in your little wife’s teeth too—Changed “t—in” to “turd in”.
• p. 190: Waspe. Marry gip, goody She-justice, mistress Frenchhood! t—in your teeth, and t—in your Frenchhood’s teeth too—Changed “t—in” to “turd in”.
• p. 191: Mrs. Lit. And I am, for the cosset his charge—Assigned this line to Winwife in keeping with the Folio.
• p. 192: Over. You will not let him go, brother, and lose him?—For consistency, changed the character title “Over.” to “Mrs. Over.”
• p. 193: Gra. Truly, I have no such fancy to the Fair—For consistency, changed the character title “Gra.” to “Grace.”
• p. 195: For consistency with the rest of the text, changed the character title “Bus.” to “Busy.”
• p. 197: The text of the song beginning with the line “Now the Fair’s a filling!” has been italicized in keeping with the Folio and the convention elsewhere in the text of italicizing songs.
• p. 198-99: and a quarter of pound of colt’s-foot mixt with it too, to [eke] it out.—The Everyman’s Library edition substituted “[eke]” for “itch” in the Folio. The original word has been restored.
• p. 206: because he is an ass. and may be a-kin to the Cokeses?—Changed period after “ass” to a comma.
• p. 209: [Beats Overdo.—Changed the stage direction to “[They speak all together; and Waspe beats Overdo.” based on the stage direction in the Folio and deleted a second stage direction (“[Beats Overdo again.”), which is not in the Folio. In the Folio, the dialogue is printed in two columns, with Cokes’, Mrs. Overdo’s, and most of Waspe’s lines in one column, and Justice Overdo’s line in the other. The stage direction is printed in the right margin.
• p. 209: Enter VAL, WHIT, HAGGISE, and BRISTLE.—Deleted “VAL” from the list of characters entering. In the Folio, Jonson usually lists at the beginning of a scene who is to speak in that scene and often uses these lists to indicate an entrance. This character was not listed at the beginning of this scene in the Folio and has no lines.
• p. 210: Had. Why, should the watch go by the clock—Corrected the character title abbreviation to “Hag.” in keeping with the Folio.
• p. 214: in justice name, and the king’s, and for the commonwealth.—Inserted “[Exit.” at the end of Overdo’s speech. On p. 217, a stage direction indicates that Overdo re-enters, but the Everyman’s Library edition does not indicate his exit after his speech. The Folio implies his exit before Cokes, Mistress Overdo, and Grace enter.
• p. 215: nay, you have it, sir, an you be angry, t—in your teeth, twice;—Changed “t—in” to “turd in”.
• p. 218: Look you, sister, here, here, [he shews his purse boastingly], let him come—Deleted the comma after the second “here” for consistency.
• p. 218: Cokes. So I heard them say!—In keeping with the Folio, the text “So I heard them say!” is not italicized, and consequently the character title “Cokes” is italicized in the html-based files.
• p. 223: Winw. I’ll look to you, in faith, gamester.—[Aside.] An unfortunate foolish tribe—Reversed the order of the em dash and the stage direction to clarify that the first sentence is an aside.
• p. 224: Enter Mrs. PURECRAFT.—Changed “Mrs.” to “Dame” for consistency.
• p. 228: Enter POCHER, and Officers with BUSY, followed by Mrs. PURECRAFT.—Changed “Mrs.” to “Dame” for consistency.
• p. 234: After Knockem’s line “To what do you say nay, sir?”, inserted the stage direction from the Folio describing the game of vapors.
• p. 236: Waspe. A t— in your teeth, never pre dee me, for I will have nothing mistaken.—Changed “t—” to “turd”.
• p. 236: Knock. T—! ha, t—? a noisome vapour: strike, Whit.—Changed “T—” and “t—” to spell the word “turd.”
• p. 237: marry s— o’ your hood—Changed “s—” to “shite” using the spelling in the Folio.
• p. 237: t— in your teeth for a fee, now.—Changed “t—” to “turd”.
• pp. 253-60: In keeping with the Folio, the character titles of the puppets have been changed so that “Pup.” precedes the abbreviated name. For example, “Lean.” (short for “Leander”) has been changed to “Pup. Lean.”
• p. 254: Leath. How, Hogrubber of Pickthatch.—In keeping with the Folio, changed the period at the end of the sentence to a question mark.
• p. 257: Italicized Leatherhead’s speech beginning “How, some wine there!” for consistency in italicizing text that is part of the puppet show.
• p. 257: Pup. Hero. Kiss the whore o’ the a—.—Changed “a—” to “arse”.
• p. 257: You must kiss her o’ the a—, she says.—Changed “a—” to “arse”.
• p. 260: you also, young man [to Edgeworth] shall be my care; stand there.—Changed “Edgeworth” to “Edgworth” for consistency.
• p. 261: witness this easy and honest young man, [pointing to Edge]—[to Knock.] Now, thou esquire of dames—Changed “Edge” to “Edgworth.” and “Knock” to “Knockem”.
• p. 261: redde te Harpocratem.—Capitalized the “r” in “redde” and changed the period to an exclamation mark in keeping with the Folio. Overdo is pompously ordering Littlewit to be quiet. An English translation is: “Turn yourself into Harpocrates!” (i.e., the god of silence).