Greenwood argues that probably Bungay was still alive and active,
after Shakspere was dead and buried. (Mr. Greenwood, of course, does
not speak of Bungay, which I use as short for his Great Unknown.)
Thus, Richard III from 1597 to 1622 appeared in six quartos. It is
immensely improved in the Folio, and so are several other plays. Who
made the improvements, which the Editors could only obtain in
manuscripts? If we say that Shakespeare made them in MS., Mr.
Greenwood asks, "What had he to work upon, since, after selling his
plays to his company, he did not preserve his manuscript?" {216a}
Now I do not know that he did sell his plays to his company. We are
sure that Will got money for them, but we do not know what
arrangement he made with his company. He may have had an author's
rights in addition to a sum down, as later was customary, and he had
his regular share in the profits. Nor am I possessed of information
that "he did not preserve his manuscript." How can we know that? He
may have kept his first draft, he may have made a fair copy for
himself, as well as for the players, or may have had one made. He
may have worked on a copy possessed by the players; and the publisher
of the quartos of 1605, 1612, 1622, may not have been allowed to use,
or may not have asked for the latest manuscript revised copy. The
Richard III of the Folio contains, with much new matter, the
printer's errors of the quarto of 1622. I would account for this by
supposing that the casual Editor had just sense enough to add the new
parts in a revised manuscript to the quarto, and was far too lazy to
correct the printer's errors in the quarto. But Mr. Greenwood asks
whether "the natural conclusion is not that 'some person unknown'
took the Quarto of 1622, revised it, added the new passages, and thus
put it into the form in which it appeared in 1623." This natural
conclusion means that the author, Bungay, was alive in 1622, and put
his additions and improvements of recent date into the quarto of