PRINTED FOR THE MALONE SOCIETY BY

CHARLES WHITTINGHAM & CO.

AT THE CHISWICK PRESS

THE INTERLUDE OF WEALTH AND HEALTH

THE MALONE SOCIETY

REPRINTS

1907

This reprint of Wealth and Health has been prepared by the General Editor and checked by Percy Simpson.

March 1907. W.W. Greg.

Early in the craft year which began on 19 July 1557, and was the first of the chartered existence of the Stationers' Company, John Waley, or Wally, entered what was no doubt the present play on the Register along with several other works. The entry runs as follows:

That Waley printed an edition is therefore to be presumed, but it does not necessarily follow that the extant copy, which though perfect bears neither date nor printer's name, ever belonged to it. Indeed, a comparison with a number of works to which he did affix his name suggests grave doubts on the subject. Though not a high-class printer, there seems no reason to ascribe to him a piece of work which for badness alike of composition and press-work appears to be unique among the dramatic productions of the sixteenth century.

'Wealth and health' appears among the titles in the list of plays appended to the edition of Goffe's Careless Shepherdess, printed for Rogers and Ley in 1656. The entry was repeated with the designation 'C[omedy].' in Archer's list of the same year, and, without the addition, in those of Kirkman in 1661 and 1671. In 1691 Langbaine wrote 'Wealth and Health, a Play of which I can give no Account.' Gildon has no further information to offer, nor have any of his immediate followers. Chetwood, in 1752, classes it among 'Plays Wrote by Anonymous Authors in the 16th [by which he means the seventeenth] Century,' calls it 'an Interlude' and dates it 1602. This invention was only copied in those lists which depended directly on Chetwood's, such as the Playhouse Pocket-Companion of 1779. Meanwhile, in his Companion to the Play-House of 1764, D.E. Baker, relying upon Coxeter's notes, gave an essentially accurate description of the piece, except that he asserted it to be 'full of Sport and mery Pastyme,' and described it as an octavo. This entry has been copied by subsequent bibliographers, none of whom have seen the original.

The play was among those discovered in Ireland in the spring of 1906 and sold at Sotheby's on 30 June, when it was purchased for the British Museum at the price of one hundred and ninety-five pounds. Its press-mark is C. 34. i. 25.

The extremely careless typography of the original makes the task of reprinting a difficult one. Ordinary misprints abound, and these have been scrupulously retained, a list of irregularities being added below. It has, however, proved impossible to arrive at any satisfactory method of distinguishing between 'n' and 'u.' In the first hundred lines, which are by no means the worst printed, there are thirty-two cases in which the letter is indistinguishable, eighteen cases of an apparent 'u' which should be 'n,' and seven cases of an apparent 'n' which should be 'u.' When it is further remembered that there are few cases in which it is possible to say for certain that a letter really is what it appears to be, and none in which it may not be turned, some idea of the difficulty in the way of reprinting will be obtained. To have followed the original in this matter would have been to introduce another misprint into at least every fourth line, while even so several hundred cases would have remained which could only have been decided according to the apparent sense of the passage. The only rational course was to treat the letters as indistinguishable throughout, and to print in each instance whichever the sense seemed to require. Again, as the superscript letters 'c,' 'e,' 't,' are seldom distinguishable, the printer has been given the benefit of the doubt. Another difficulty arose in connection with the speakers' names. In the original these have often dropt from their proper places, which can now only be ascertained from the sense and the not very regular indentation. With some hesitation it has been decided to restore them to the positions they should apparently occupy, noting all cases in which they are a line or more out in the original. Lastly it may be remarked that in the speeches which aim at imitating foreign languages the apparent readings of the very indistinct original have been scrupulously reproduced, and no attempt has been made, even in the subjoined list, to suggest any corrections.

In the last sheet some of the pages are cropt at the foot. In most cases nothing more than the catchword has disappeared, and although between lines 768 and 769 something seems to be lost, it is doubtful whether this is due to the cropping, since D1^v has already one line too many.

The original is printed in the ordinary black letter of the period, of the body known as English (20 ll. = 94 mm.).

Irregular and Doubtful Readings.

Tit. att his
5. tcowe
7. fleepe(?)
13. nof
24. Weith
25. Iam
27. ofcompariſon
29. ſo (too?)
38. yeth
41. dyſpayre (dyſprayſe)
50. marualufly
52. iu
54. ts
57. ſtander ... nowe
58. ſelte
62. Inlykewiſe
63. Wh en (?) (no catchword)
66. deſyred
70. thouart
74. anſwerrd
75. wellh
76. thou' fagetyue (or ?tagetyue)
80. Thai
84. benefites
95. welth hatg ... freaſure
98. ſtands (the 'ſ' doubtful)
100. cempetent
105. Ye
107. otherwelth
109. Euerywiſe
110. dtſpoſicions
127. ſaue (the 'e' doubtful)
134. woth
137. ſtealeth
144. hit
149. a wreke
150. nf
159. (no catchword)
164. nhw indifferenily
165. me
168. Weith
177. tryaſure
178. yfthey
191. (no catchword)
195. please youto
197. libert
201. werwhy (me, why?)
207. feloweh
214. ſhalde
216. crow
224. beholde (be bolde)
234. wyſe (the 'ſ' doubtful)
ifye (if he?)
237. yllibert
238. notfore
249. lubſtaunce
250. werr
251. whyce
253. luſt (luſty)
257. lybertye
258. H elth