The Novella
Textual Essay1The Novella was first published in 1653, the year following Brome’s death. It was included in the collection, Five New Playes, an octavo volume, “printed for Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot and Thomas Dring” and intended for sale “at their shops”.n11256 The Novella was situated second after A Mad Couple Well Matched in the volume, which also included The Court Beggar, The City Wit and The Demoiselle. It runs to a total of 79 pages between the signatures, H3r and N2r (N2v is left blank before the title page of The Court Beggar.) The title page reads:THE / NOVELLA. / A / COMEDIE. /Acted at the Black-Friers, by his / MAJESTIES Servants, / Anno 1632. // WRITTEN / By / RICHARD BROME. // MART. / Hic totus volo rideat Libellus. // LONDON. / Printed for RICHARD MARRIOT, and / THO. DRING, and are to be sold at their / shops in Fleet-street, 1653.2The date assigned to the performances by the King’s Men would appear from other evidence to be accurate: the play is listed in 1641 in a document dated 7th August in which the Earl of Essex as the new Lord Chamberlain advised the Stationers Company to forbid the printing of any plays from the company’s repertory as set out by him; he appends the titles of some sixty plays, including The Novella (many in the list date from earlier than 1632, though it excludes many titles that were already in print).n11257 The motto in Latin is from Martial’s Epigrams (11.15) and translates as “I wish this little book to laugh throughout its entirety” (Martial’s epigram continues with the hope that it will be much naughtier than his previous works). Seemingly the phrase was popular with Brome, since it is included in the title pages of four of the five independent quartos printed in his lifetime. 3The verso of the title page is left blank while H4r carries the listing of “The Persons of the Play”, which is headed by a decoration in the form of a neat border of stencilled designs which is then inverted for a repeat of the pattern so that the effect is of a ribbon of lace. The list is accurate with the names given in italic and their descriptions in roman (except that it omits the name of Don Pedro, the Spanish gentleman who makes a short but effective appearance in Act 3 and again in 5.2.). All the characters are accurately described in terms of their relationships or their social standing and care is taken to identify the Pedlar as a “Woman”, her gender being all-important in terms of the plotting. The fact that one of the characters, Paulo, is described as “By-named Burgio” indicates to a reader that he is in all likelihood in disguise; however, no attempt is made to suggest that “Jacconetta, Servant to Victoria” is not only in disguise but also is a cross-gender role, a fact which is revealed only in the closing moments of the play. Beneath the list the setting of the action is announced: “The Sceane Venice”. On the verso of this sheet appears the twenty-six lines of the Prologue in rhyming couplets, headed by a single line of the stencilled design occurring above the dramatis personae. The play begins on H5r with a further repeat of the design: on this occasion the line is again repeated and inverted as on H4r but with the rows of images placed some distance apart with the space between being decorated with smaller flower-bud-like designs set end to end in pairs so that the overall effect is of a running lace border or wide ribbon. The title of the play is then repeated in capitals, while the heading “ACT 1. SCENE 1.” is divided from the title and the opening stage direction and first speeches by lines drawn above and below. The collation over the 79 pages is as follows: Act One, which contains two scenes, runs from H5r to I3v; Act Two, also containing two scenes, from I3v to K2r; Act Three, comprising a single scene, from K2r to K8r; Act Four, which reverts to the format of two scenes, from K8v to L8v; the final act, a single scene, from L8v to N1v; and the Epilogue on N2r, where the six lines of rhyming couplets have above their heading a repeat of the double line of decoration first used above the list of dramatis personae, while beneath it the word “FINIS.” is edged above and below with two lines of the stencilled images of flower buds that made up the inner border on H5r with the lower row inverted.4The overall effect when reading the octavo is that the play is easy on the eye and well set with decently spaced and sized headings not only for the acts but the individual scenes. The preliminaries to Five New Playes make continual reference to the reader (the opening item is a letter addressed to readers who are awarded the epithet “beloved”) when outlining the ambition of the men producing the volume as creating a fitting memorial to the recently deceased Brome. Aston Cokaine’s commendatory “Praeludium”, for example, concludes:Then (with a justly attributed praise)
We’ll change our faded broom to deathless bays. (A2v)5Who is to attribute the praise necessary to transform branches of the common broom (the pun is intentional) to the laurel wreath used to crown poets of distinction in classical times, if not the reader? And Alexander Brome in the following poem praising the Stationer for publishing the comedies remarks in its fourth line how both author and work “Must by the Readers Palate rise or set” (A2v). The printing of The Novella is undeniably reader-friendly and set with remarkable attention to clarity of detail (which is not the case with some of the other titles in the volume). Scene numbering follows what are generally termed modern principles rather than classical: that is, a new scene is called for only when the playing space is completely emptied of performers and the next scene has clearly shifted to a new supposed location.n11258 6The running titles are consistent throughout, the signatures and catch words precise and readable. (The one anomaly is on K8v where the catchword is given as Ast (for Astutta) but the speaker at the top of L1r is in fact Flavia so the catchword should read “Fla” and Bentley rightly describes this as appearing to “be a mere misprint”.)n11259 The catchwords are usually set well below and clear of the dialogue with two notable exceptions. On L1v the catchword “Would” falls below a protracted stage direction which is divided over several lines in the right-hand margin “(A / (halter /(a Knif /(a Viall.”; the direction is separated from the dialogue by the use of half-brackets as shown here; the catchword is readily distinguishable from the last line of the direction, “(a Viall”, by virtue of the different font deployed. The second instance occurs on M2v, where the catchword “Below” is set alongside the last line of dialogue on the page; but a good gap is allowed between it and the final word in the line, “descend”. 7Stage directions are centrally placed when they indicate entrances or large-scale visual effects (for the parade of serenading parties in 1.1.n11260 or in 2.2. the surge of clients viewing Victoria at her debut when she is seated aloft on her balconyn11261); but moved to the right-hand margin for exits, necessary stage properties or offstage sound effects. Italics are used too for the prose medium when Flavia in 4.1. reads aloud the letter that Astutta has written on her behalf and again for the sentences in German spoken by Swatzenburgh in 5.2. The play is entirely in verse, except for the letter and a short sequence in the same scene (4.1.1346-1351) when the Pedlar-woman arrives with Nanulo, Guadagni’s dwarf-like servant, and exchanges snide backchat with him before insisting he effect an exit, when the scene reverts to verse.n11262 In instances where a line of verse is completed by a second speaker, the two contributions are always set on independent lines of text (never side-by-side and including one or more speech prefixes) even when the pace of the dialogue is evidently fast, as in the farcical sequences in 4.1. Rounded brackets are generally deployed to designate inserted phrases or clauses and seem designed to help the reader with assimilating the grammar when sentence-structuring is complex. In one instance only the use of such brackets indicates an aside but is accompanied by a direction to that effect placed to the right of the closing bracket: this is to be found on K4v, where Victoria fears that Horatio may be about to proffer the exact fee she is demanding for the taking of her maidenhead: Vic.(I am betray’d. Hee brings the Money
sure.)Aside.n112638Elsewhere asides are indicated simply by the word occurring as a stage direction in the right-hand margin alongside the opening verse line of what the actor is to deliver in this manner. As all these exceptions to what appear to be the general principles underlying the setting show: care is repeatedly taken to avoid any degree of confusion on the part of the reader.n112649Copies of Five New Playes are to be found in the following libraries (in some instances individual plays from the collection are to be found separate from the collection as a whole; only copies of the whole collection or independent copies of The Novella are included here):U.K.
BL [E. 1423] [G. 18535]; Nv [162.c.20] (British Library)n11265
Bodl. [Octavo, M. 38 Art. — restricted access, Duke Humfrey staff] [Douce B 333]
(Bodleian Library, University of Oxford)
Dyce [25.E.43] (2nd not found by V&A staff, but no record of sale either)
(Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
Eton [1 copy] (Eton College Library)
NLS [NG.1580.g.7] (National Library of Scotland)
UKC [Templeman C 653.BRO Spec Coll Store] (University of Kent at Canterbury Library)
ULC [Brett-Smith.100 — UL: Order in Rare Books Room] (University Library, Cambridge)
Worc. [1 copy] (Worcester College, Oxford)U.S.A.
Boston [G.3810.61] ((Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass.)
Chicago [Special Collections, Rare Books: PR2439.B5C6 1653] [PR2439.B5N8 1653]
[alc PR2439.B5A59 1653] (University of Chicago Library, Chicago)
Congress [PR2439.B5 A16 1653] (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
Cornell [Kroch PR2439.B5 A16 1653] (Cornell University Library)
Folger [B4870 Copy 1] [B4870 Copy 2] (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.)
Harvard [Houghton EC B7877 B653f] (Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Mass.)
Hunt. [Rare books 58022] (Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California)
Morgan [Printed book collection W 01 C] (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City)
Newberry [Special Collections 4th Floor Case Y 135 .B7788] (Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois)
New York [1 — Berg coll.] (New York Public Library, New York City)
Penn. [EC6.B7877.653f] (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.)
Pforz. (Texas) [1 — no shelfmark] (Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection, New York — transferred to Texas)
Prince. [Rare Books (Ex) 3639.9.335] (Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.)
UIUC [X 822 B78F] (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library)
Yale [Beinecke Ih B787 653F] (Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.)10In 1654 a reissue of the collection of five plays appeared, which carried on its revised title-page the information: “Printed by J[ames] F[letcher] and are to be sold by J[ohn] Sweeting, / at his shop at the Angel in Popeshead-Alley. / 1654”.n11266 Bentley comments that “From the advertisements it is clear that Moseley and Marriot (and presumably Dring) retained their rights in the edition, but that they made over a portion of the stock to Sweeting at the beginning of 1654”.n11267 Four copies of the reissue have been traced:U.K.
BL [1607/490] (British Library)
Bodl. [Vet. A3 f.1079] (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford)U.S.A.
Folger [B4871 (cs4164)] (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.)
Yale [Beinecke Ih B787 653Fb] (Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.)11Given what has been argued above about the clean state of the text of The Novella, there would not appear from the volumes collated from both issues to have been press variants. Instances, it should be noted, are to be found throughout all copies consulted of stray letters not catching the ink and so a small gap occurs within a word on occasions but not uniformly. (For example in many but not all copies on I4r at line 11 “Bordello” appears with a gap where the “d” should occur.) There are in fact remarkably few problematic readings and these are repeated in all copies consulted. One possible exception to this pattern to be found in the copy in the holdings of Eton College Library will be discussed below. The various cruces are as follows:12I4r (on line 14):n11268 “Movella” is obviously a misprint for “Novella”.13K6r (line 17): “Be hand’d”.n11269 Horatio has just quietly been put in his place by Victoria who has suggested he is little more than a poor performer with a skill in dancing who might appeal more to “The love of some old Lady, by stirring up /The embers of affection, rather lust” rather than excite the interest of a courtesan. She leaves to attend to “private businesse of my own”, which is a polite way of asking him to leave. After her exit, he speaks this phrase alone on stage. It is a curious remark and the ending of the verb “d’d” would be impossible to enunciate; the phrase stands on a verse line by itself so there is no need for the abbreviation of the participial ending. It does not appear to have been corrected and it too recurs in the 1654 reissue.14L1v (on lines 30-31): “Had she there Lucrece’ Knife, or Portias coales, /Or Cleopatra’s ashes I could embrace ‘em.”n11270 The problematic word here is “ashes” in the second line. Brome is referencing three of Shakespeare’s heroines all of whom committed suicide and their names are severally linked to the means by which they took their lives: Lucrece stabbed herself; Portia in Julius Caesar “swallowed fire” (4.3.154); Cleopatra, however, died by applying poisonous snakes (asps) to her body. Perhaps the compositor mistook an ornate “p” for an “h” in his copy text or could not read what was written and, influenced by the reference to “Portia’s coales” in the previous line, guessed at “ashes”. Though an error is obvious, it appears not to have been corrected (it recurs in the 1654 reissue). This edition revises the line to read “Cleopatra’s asps”.n11271 15L8v (at the start of 5.1, line 7): “And your Mistris is over too, I hope sir. The place is not so dangerous as it was.”n11272 The difficult reading here is “Mistris is over”. Victoria is speaking to Francisco who has been brought with Flavia after they have both escaped their fathers to her house where they have happily married and learned that she (Victoria) was instrumental in their effecting their escape. Flavia could be described as the “mistress” of Francisco’s heart and she certainly has been won “over”; but this is forcing the meaning out of the words somewhat. It might be more plausible to revise “Mistris” to “distress” so that the sentence means that Francisco and Flavia’s unhappy period of separation is “over”, but the later use of the term, “sir” implies that the anguish has chiefly been experienced by him when spectators in two long scenes have seen the impact of her father’s cruelty on Flavia’s nervous disposition. No press variant is offered in either issue of Five New Playes.16M1r (on line 11): The prefix assigned to the three-line speech which begins here is “Vic.”, as is the speech which follows at line 14.n11273 This is clearly wrong. In this short sequence Victoria is wittily chiding both Horatio and Piso, who both failed to succeed in paying court to her in 3.1. The forwardness and the calculated bawdy of the three-line speech are wholly out of keeping with Victoria’s character and wholly in keeping with Piso’s. If the first of these speeches were assigned to him, then for Victoria to speak line 14 as an ironic riposte would have dramatic logic, while her unfortunate use of the word “stand” seems to encourage his further bawdy till she silences him with “You are a merry Gentleman” (at line 16). This edition reassigns the speech starting at line 11 to Piso.n1127417Amongst the copies consulted, that in the collection of Eton College Library is particularly interesting for the corrections entered in holograph.n11275 The volume came into the possession of the library as the gift of Anthony Storer (1746-1799), who had attended Eton from 1754 to 1764. He became an avid collector of antiquarian books in his later years and had a particular fondness for early editions of renaissance drama (the collection amounted to 2800 volumes when bequeathed to Eton, including 388 containing texts of early English plays and 3 first folios of Shakespeare’s plays). The copy of The Novella contains several valuable emendations in black ink but it is not certain when they were entered. The librarian at Eton is convinced these are not in Storer’s own hand, since it does not appear to have been his habit to write in the volumes he collected (the librarian has doubts whether he actually read them), so the emendations must have been entered at some point between the dates 1653 to the 1790s when Storer began seriously adding to his collection. They are in a precise and neat hand. For example, the Eton copy is one where on I4r the word “Bordello” was printed without the letter “d”, which has been carefully inserted; and “Movella” has been corrected to “Novella” on the same sheet. While this clearly is an insertion, it is more difficult to decipher and precisely determine (because of the neatness of the hand) whether the correction of “ashes” to “aspes” on L1v is an emendation or a press variant. More interesting is the definite emendation made to “Be hand’d” (K6r), which is corrected to read “Be damn’d”. Dramatically this makes great sense: Horatio has failed to win Victoria’s interest and she has politely poured scorn on his attributes as a gentleman; that, left alone, he should so vent his spleen and anger against himself and the woman who has exposed him as a fraud is wholly credible. While attractive, it is not easy, however, to reconcile this with the usual kinds of misreadings made by compositors (the variation in letters is perhaps too wide). Moreover to this editor’s ear it smacks rather of a post-Restoration expletive. It has not therefore been adopted in this edition.n11276 A further emendation that carries more certain conviction is on L8v, where the line “And your Mistris is over too, I hope sir” is revised to read: “And your mistrust is over too”. This again makes sense in the context: that Francisco should have misgivings about entering the house of a known courtesan with his Flavia and so needs to have his anxieties allayed has a dramatic logic, while “Mistris” would be a plausible misreading of “Mistrust” by a compositor.n11277 This emendation has been adopted by this edition.n1127818After the reissue of Five New Playes in 1654, no further edition of The Novella was printed till the inclusion of the play in volume one of John Pearson’s The Dramatic Works of Richard Brome in 1873. This is more in the manner of a reprint: no serious emendation to any of the textual cruces listed above was attempted in that edition, except for the correction of “Movella” to “Novella” on I4r. This is the first scholarly edition since Pearson’s, which follows throughout the editorial principles established for the online project, The Collected Plays of Richard Brome. In the modernising process, spellings and punctuation have been emended where necessary; all substantive corrections have been commented on and defended in textual annotations. As a transcription of the period text can be read alongside my modernised text in this edition, it is easy to note any editorial intrusions on my part. The Novella is, as hopefully text and introduction reveal, a highly theatrical and stageworthy comedy. The workshops with professional actors proved as much, and decisively so. That the comedy remained a valued item in the repertory of the King’s Men as late as 1641 is not surprising. It merits revival today, which this edition is designed to promote.
n11256 “at their shops”.
n11257 (many in the list date from earlier than 1632, though it excludes many titles that were already in print).
n11258 supposed location.
n11259 (The one anomaly is on K8v where the catchword is given as Ast (for Astutta) but the speaker at the top of L1r is in fact Flavia so the catchword should read “Fla” and Bentley rightly describes this as appearing to “be a mere misprint”.)
n11260 for the parade of serenading parties in 1.1.
n11261 seated aloft on her balcony
n11262 when the scene reverts to verse.
n11263 Aside.
n11264 the reader.
n11265 BL [E. 1423] [G. 18535]; Nv [162.c.20] (British Library)
n11266 “Printed by J[ames] F[letcher] and are to be sold by J[ohn] Sweeting, / at his shop at the Angel in Popeshead-Alley. / 1654”.
n11267 “From the advertisements it is clear that Moseley and Marriot (and presumably Dring) retained their rights in the edition, but that they made over a portion of the stock to Sweeting at the beginning of 1654”.
n11268 I4r (on line 14):
n11269 “Be hand’d”.
n11270 Or Cleopatra’s ashes I could embrace ‘em.”
n11271 This edition revises the line to read “Cleopatra’s asps”.
n11272 The place is not so dangerous as it was.”
n11273 as is the speech which follows at line 14.
n11274 This edition reassigns the speech starting at line 11 to Piso.
n11275 holograph.
n11276 has not therefore been adopted in this edition.
n11277 by a compositor.
n11278 This emendation has been adopted by this edition.