By Palmer White
One of the first decisions I made in creating this edition of Volpone was to make a visual distinction between lines containing multiple speakers–Volpone and Mosca. In the early editions, lines containing two speakers were written as one continuous line; however, I felt this made it difficult to determine who spoke when, and who said what. I chose to indent and begin a new line with each new speaker. I also attempted to make the lines begin where the others ended, to continue the line of poetry, though when published, the specific indentations I inputted disappeared. This makes it a bit difficult to read the lines as lines of poetry with determined syllable counts. Additionally, this scene between Mosca and Volpone–aside from Mosca’s short speech–is composed of quick, witty exchanges. When the lines are written with multiple speakers, it confuses the reader a bit. I originally thought this was a distraction, though I now see that Jonson may have purposely created this effect through the quality of lines and how he chose to display them.
Another large choice I made was to add stage directions. There were no stage directions in the early editions I studied, though our anthology does have them. I included them because I felt they emphasized different things about the play: Mosca and Volpone’s tension, Mosca’s servantry to Volpone, Volpone’s over-exaggeratedly faked illness. I think they emphasize those ideas; however, I now realize it is a great risk–as an editor–to force interpretation on your readers. These added stage directions encourage specific ideas, while also eliminating the possibility of others. This is a bit of a dangerous game as it risks altering the meaning Jonson intended with his work.
Annotations also work in the same way in that if they are based too largely on personal interpretation they will force the reader to have a certain perspective of the work. Next time, I would be more careful in my stage directions and annotations so as not to interpret anything. It is important that these devices only present information that is present within the play’s text.
Aside from these major changes in regards to line arrangement and inclusion of stage directions and notes, there was very little variation between the early editions of Volpone and my edition. All four editions of Volpone I studied were nearly identical, and only had minimal variation in regards to spelling, punctuation, and word choice. I believe this is because this moment of exchange between Volpone and Mosca, and the greater meaning it has in regards to the play as a whole, is crucial, and altering it between editions would risk contrasting interpretations.
One of the only obvious variations is in the line: “What thoughts he has, within, now, as he walks:” This line appears as: “What thoughts he has (within) now, as he walks:” (1607); “What thoughts he has (without) now, as he walkes: (1616)”; “What thoughts he has (without) now, as he walks:” (1692). I found this to be really interesting because even though it only changes from without to within, it has a great effect on the meaning of the phrase. I contemplated both for some time, though ultimately decided to include “within” because of the introspective quality it places on the gift bearer’s thinking. I felt this was important because this is a largely introspective moment for Mosca–even if it is disguised differently, so I thought this allusion to introspection would be helpful. I never realized how great the implications could be between two seemingly similar words, like without and within.
The final minor–though crucial–decision I considered was punctuation. There were a few lines in which commas appeared in different places, just a couple words apart. This seemed like a trivial difference, but when I started to create my edition I realized the profound impact had by comma placement. The placement of a comma most noticeably–especially when reading a play–alters the pacing of a line. It signals where breaths should be taken and where pauses should be held. It also shifts the meaning of a line. For example, ““That this might be the last gift, he should give” and “That this might be the last gift he should give.” This additional comma in the former version causes the phrases to read like a command, which ultimately changes the dynamic of the relationship between Mosca and the gift bearer he speaks of. This version has a bit more of an impact, both because the comma causes it to read a bit harsher, and because the meaning itself becomes stricter.
The choices I made in creating this edition seem most similar to the edition we read for class, published in 2018. Even though there isn’t much variation between all five of these editions of Volpone, my edition and the one from 2018 feel a bit more modern than the other three. I think this is largely in regards to presentation, because even reading a text published ~400 years ago that is so visually distinct from what we are used to, can cause it to be interpreted differently.