The Two Edinburgh 1757 Editions of John Home's Douglas

Extract

THE first Edinburgh edition of John Home's Douglas: A Tragedy was published in 1757. This was some ten days after A. Millar first published the play in London, but the text published in Edinburgh is a quite distinct production with significant substantive variations from the London edition.¹ In his 1972 edition of Douglas, however, Gerald D. Parker notes the existence of two separate editions published in Edinburgh in 1757 and expresses doubt over which came first.² One edition (henceforth E1) lists ‘J. Hamilton & G. Balfour, W. Gray & W. Peter’ as the publishers. The other is published only by ‘J. Hamilton & G. Balfour’ (henceforth E1a). This latter edition is less common and was uncovered by Parker in the Folger Shakespeare Library (The National Library of Scotland also holds a copy). The two editions have different typeset and numerous differences in accidentals, but no substantive variants....