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A Private Entertainment at Highgate: Textual Essay

James Knowles

This entertainment exists in only one witness, F1 , sigs. 4E2-4E5 (pp. 879-85); the running title is ‘Entertaynments’. For 76-97, the song, a second witness, Martin Peerson’s Private Music, or the First Book of Airs and Dialogues (1620) , sigs. G2v-G4, provides some alternative readings which may have been those used in the performance or which may derive from later changes made to fit words to music.

There are no corrections in F1 even though there are several obvious errors in the printing:

10 mirror] F2; F1 (merror)
57 yond’] F3; yon’d F1
106 Hydaspes lends] F1 (HYDASPESlends)
110 and all] H&S; and and all F1
130 whose] Wh; who F1
156 your] F2; you F1
156-7 sole, and] F1 (sole,and)
157 than] F2; the F1
220 i’faith] H&S; ifaith F1
Other peculiarities include the hyphenation of household-gods (1, 46), and the representations of aphesis in ‘saue’of’ (37).

This edition follows F1, but adopts the F2 and F3 corrections (57, 156). It emends ‘Hollow ’hem’ (F1) to ‘Halloo ’em’ (177), and accepts the emendations proposed by H&S (110, 220) and Whalley (130).