The brilliant Ben Jonson was an assiduous proofreader of his printed work, his attitude toward a dirty compositor was ruthless. It is known that when proofs were read by Jonson of his Cynthia’s Revels in 1601, he made 192 changes in the text, many of which indicated much more than a cursory knowledge of professional proofreading.

Proofreading and Copy-Preparation: A Textbook for the Graphic Arts Industry (New York, 1954)

Jonson’s reputation as a textbook example of a ‘ruthless’ reader of proofs rests largely on the remarkable number of press variants in the first quarto (1601) of Cynthia’s Revels. Our collation of the fourteen known copies of Q1 — nine more than were collated for the Herford and Simpson edition — now reveals 275 press variants, more than are found in any other early English dramatic quarto. However, only about a dozen of these variants were the result of stop-press correction; the vast majority are minor changes that resulted when three formes were completely reset into type. Moreover, fresh examination of the type used for one of the reset sheets reveals that it was produced by a second print shop, perhaps years after the original printing. In the case of Cynthia’s Revels, then, press-variant analysis is significant not for what it tells us about an author’s proofreading habits, but rather for what it may reveal about the early reception history of his play.

Cynthia’s Revels was entered in the Stationers’ Register by Walter Burre on 23 May 1601 as ‘a booke called Narcissus, the Fountaine of Self Love’ (oddly invoking Narcissus, who does not figure in the title of the play as printed). A quarto appeared in the same year with the title-page:

THE | FOVNTAINE | OF SELFE-LOUE. | Or | CYNTHIAS | REVELS. | As it hath beene sundry times | priuately acted in the Black- | Friers by the Children | of her Maiesties | Chappel. | Written by Ben: Iohnson. | Quod non dant Proceres, dabit Histrio. | Haud tamen inuideas vati, quem pulpita pascunt. | [double rule] | Imprinted at London for Walter Burre, and are to be | solde at his shop in Paules Church-yard, at the signe | of the Flower de-Luce and Crowne. 1601.

This is the first time that the Blackfriars theatre is mentioned on the title-page of a play quarto. The printer was unidentified until 1970, when J. A. Lavin observed that the ornamental initials on B1 and B1v were part of the stock used by Richard Read and subsequently by George Eld (Lavin, 1970, 331-8) . Read is a rather shadowy figure: although he apparently printed more than thirty books, his name is never mentioned on any of their title-pages. Apprenticed to Richard Jugge, the Queen’s printer, and freed on 18 January 1580, Read eventually acquired the shop of Gabriel Simson – one of his fellow apprentices with Jugge – following Simson’s death. We know that Read married the widowed Frances Simson in 1601, but the precise date at which he took over the shop is uncertain; therefore, some books printed in that year, including Cynthia, should perhaps be assigned to Frances Simson. In any event, Read’s tenure as owner of the shop was short-lived: George Eld took over following Read’s death in 1603 – by marrying the twice-widowed Frances.