13 OCTOBER 1923, Page 38

The Library for September. (II. Milford. fie. net.) The latest

part of the Transactions of the Bibliogmphiaa Society contains a valuable paper by Mr. Gordon Duff on the fifth edition of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, which was partly printed in Edinburgh and completed by printers at Oxford and London. Mr. Gordon Duff's well-known habit of reading prefaces has once again enabled him to throw fresh light on an old problem. Mr. W. W. Greg compares the British Museum manuscript of part of Harington's Ariosto, which was used by the printer, with the edition of 1591, in order to show how far an Elizabethan compositor followed copy or observed the standard spelling and punctuation of his printing office. Mr. Greg thinks that the comparison confirms his theory that the Shakespeare quartos and first folio preserve some at least of the dramatist's own spellings. For our part, we should infer from Harington's case that the compositors went theil own way and ignored the author's tricks of spelling or misusa of commas and colons.