Curiosa: Thomas Nabbes Disclaims All Responsibility

[nebroadwe]

Over the transom today: two plays by Thomas Nabbes ("Printed by Richard Oulton, for Charles Greene; and are to be sold at the Signe of the White Lyon, in Paul's Church-yard ... You may be Furnish'd with most Sorts of Plays, at the White Lion near Chancery-lane end in Fleet-street, by Thomas Dring") in whose prefatory matter he deals with the tricky problem of errata. In Hannibal and Scipio, he provides a small list of examples without citations (possibly in the hope that their occurrence will be easier to overlook) and begs the reader not to be hasty in assigning blame:

I desire Thee Reader to take notice that some escapes have past the Presse; As Tuning for Tunny; dimacing for dimning: meane for mere; stand for share, &c. which notwithstanding are corrected in divers of the copies: where they are not, let thine own judgement rectifie them, before thy rashnesse condemne me. Farewell.

But in Microcosmus, he takes a loftier tone:

The errours escap't in the Presse are not such, but that the apparent oversight of the Correctour may prevent thy taxing me of ignorance. I therefore have omitted to expresse them.

In other words, no harm, no foul. Mind you, I sympathize to an extent: I proofed my dissertation three times without being able to eradicate all the typos. On the other hand, I wasn't being paid to produce clean copy. Harrumph.