The Plague in Print: Essential Elizabethan Sources, 1558–1603

Editorial Notes

Editorial Notes Mygoalhasbeentomakethesesixearlymoderntextsaccessible without compromising their character. In each case, I have reproduced the full printed text of the earliest available and complete edition listed in the English Short Title Catalog, noting for easy identification corresponding Short Title Catalog (STC) numbers, always from the second edition of the STC. I have included in all cases relevant dedicatory remarks, letters, and appended materials . For accuracy, I have compared available copies from research libraries, including the Folger, Huntington, Bodleian, Cambridge, and British libraries. Spelling has been modernized, except in the case of archaic verb endings and obsolete words. Unusual, archaic, and field-specific terms appear in the glossaries: one for general terminology and one for medical and herbal terminology, including weights, measures, tools, and practices. I have regularized the spelling of terms that occur frequently in various texts with various spellings; for example, “herb-of-grace,” “HerbGrace,” and “herb of grace” become “herb of grace,” just as “saith,” “sayeth,” and “sayth” become “sayeth” in every case. Standardization and definition of terms in the glossaries are based on cross referencing the texts collected here with Oxford English Dictionary entries, early modern herbals—including The Great Herbal (1526; STC 13176); A book of the properties of herbs (1552; STC 13175.15); and Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician (1652; Wing C7501)—and with the notes and glossaries provided by Hobby, Hibbard, Pendry, and Wilson (editors of other early modern texts noted in “Suggestions for Further Reading”). Identification of proper names listed in the Glossary of Names derives primarily xvii from cross-referencing entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography with those in other sources, including dictionaries edited by McKerrow and by Plomer. I have altered punctuation judiciously when necessary for clarity ; this includes the addition of apostrophes for possessives and a modern management of comma, colon, and semicolon usage as well as the addition of quotation and question marks where appropriate. I silently expanded all abbreviations and wrote out Roman numerals, in the case of biblical references turning Roman into Arabic numerals. I have retained the original capitalization and italics in all texts, except when a change of punctuation made it necessary or when consistency within a text or across later editions of the same text recommends it. For example , I have italicized the titles of all medical works, and when in a single work, “God” appeared as “God,” “god,” and “GOD,” I have standardized the capitalization so that all occurrences of the word in that text appear as “God.” Notes included in the margins of the original text now appear in the endnotes (always preceded by “[Marginal note]”), as does the occasional clarification of context -specific meaning. In the case of marginal numbering of paragraphs , as in Orders thought meet, I have left the numbers in the body of the text, and in the case of exceptionally long paragraphs, as in the homily in A Form to be used in Common Prayer, I have divided those in which a shift in content is suggested. Endnotes referring to biblical passages, other than those provided in the original texts as marginal notes, correspond to the Geneva Bible and in some cases are cross-referenced with corresponding passages in the Great Bible to confirm meaning or spellings. For ease of identification, in all texts I have standardized names of books of the Bible; in addition, I have abbreviated them in all notes. Whenever I have adopted an editorial change, the effort has been to apply it consistently throughout the text in question and across texts as useful. This does not mean that I have provided a flawless execution of transliteration, the task cumbersome and complicated. I expect the reader will discover areas that are less xviii Editorial Notes than clear, but it is my hope that these places will be few and that they will be still easier to access than they would be in their original form. As a rule, I have restricted my own speculations on the texts and on the terms within them, leaving analysis to the reader. Editorial Notes xix ...