1616. The Workes of Beniamin Jonson. W. Stansby, sold by Rich. Meighen. [Contains (a) commendatory verses, some reprinted from Qq, signed ‘I. Selden I.C.’, ‘Ed. Heyward’, ‘Geor. Chapman’, ‘H. Holland’, ‘I. D.’, ‘E. Bolton’, and for three sets ‘Franc. Beaumont’; (b) nine plays, being all printed in Q, except The Case is Altered; (c) the five early entertainments; (d) the eleven early masks and two barriers, with separate title-page ‘Masques at Court, London, 1616’; (e) non-dramatic matter. For bibliographical details on both Ff., see B. Nicholson, B. J.’s Folios and the Bibliographers (1870, 4 N. Q. v. 573); Greg, Plays, 55, and Masques, xiii, 11; G. A. Aitken, B. J.’s Works (10 N. Q. xi. 421); the introductions to the Yale editions; and B. A. P. van Dam and C. Stoffel, The Authority of the B. J. Folio of 1616 (1903, Anglia, xxvi. 377), whose conclusion that Jonson did not supervise F1 is not generally accepted. It is to be noted that, contrary to the usual seventeenth-century practice, some, and possibly all, of the dates assigned to productions in F1 follow the Circumcision and not the Annunciation style; cf. Thorndike, 17, whose demonstration leaves it conceivable that Jonson only adopted the change of style from a given date, say, 1 Jan. 1600, when it came into force in Scotland.]
F2 (1631–41)
1640. The Workes of Beniamin Jonson. Richard Bishop, sold by Andrew Crooke. [Same contents as F1.]
1640. The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The second volume. Containing these Playes, Viz. 1 Bartholomew Fayre. 2 The Staple of Newes. 3 The Divell is an Asse. For Richard Meighen. [Contains (a) reissue of folio sheets of three plays named with separate title-pages of 1631; (b) The Magnetic Lady, A Tale of a Tub, The Sad Shepherd, Mortimer his Fall; (c) later masks; (d) non-dramatic matter. The editor is known to have been Sir Kenelm Digby.]
S. R. 1658, Sept. 17. ‘A booke called Ben Johnsons Workes ye 3d volume containing these peeces, vizt. Ffifteene masques at court and elsewhere. Horace his art of Poetry Englished. English Gramar. Timber or Discoveries. Underwoods consisting of divers poems. The Magnetick Lady. A Tale of a Tub. The sad shephard or a tale of Robin hood. The Devill is an asse. Salvo iure cuiuscunque. Thomas Walkley (Eyre, ii. 196).
1658, Nov. 20. Transfer of ‘Ben Johnsons workes ye 3d vol’ from Walkley to Humphrey Moseley (Eyre, ii. 206). [Neither Walkley nor Moseley ever published the Works.]
F3 (1692)
1692. The Works of Ben Jonson, Which were formerly Printed in Two Volumes, are now Reprinted in One. To which is added a Comedy, called the New Inn. With Additions never before Published. Thomas Hodgkin, for H. Herringham [&c.].
The more important of the later collections are:
1756. P. Whalley, The Works of B. J. 7 vols. [Adds The Case is Altered.]