Page 198 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

KING LEAR, 1608 AND 1623 123

logy ('tempestious storme'). The variants within Q 1
have been exhaustively discussed by Sir Walter Greg. 1
If F repeats an error originally made by the Q 1
compositor and properly corrected from the copy by the
press-reader, the probability is that F was set up from a
Q 1 with the relevant forme in its uncorrected state.
Daniel cited a case in point at 5. 3. 46, where Q 1 un-
corrected has
Bast. Sir I thought it fit,
To saue the old and miserable King to some retention,

and Q 1 corrected has
Bast. Sir I thought it fit,
To send the old and miserable King to some retention, and ap-
pointed guard,
The added words are metrically necessary, and are no
doubt authentic. F agrees with the uncorrected version
in omitting them, and in setting up 'To...retention.'
in a single line-space. Unless we assume that someone
involved in the transmission of F independently over-
looked the same words as the Q 1 compositor had
originally overlooked, and independently produced the
same anomalous lineation—and such coincidence is
surely incredible—we must suppose that here F depends
directly on a copy of Q 1 with the outer forme of sheet K,
uncorrected.
Again, if F repeats or conjecturally emends a reading
in a corrected forme of Q 1, this reading being a con-
jecture or blunder of the Q I press-reader, the prob-
ability is that F was set up from a Q 1 with the relevant
forme in its corrected state. Greg* points to 1.4. 344,
where Q 1 uncorr. has 'alapt', Q 1 corr. 'attaskt', and
F 'at task'. He argues cogently that the copy for Q 1
1
In The Variants in the First Qgarto of 'King Lear*
(Bibliographical Society, 1940).
a
Op. tit. pp. 141-2, 153-5.