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Bibliographical note: Irrespective or the original edition for the Creighton copy-edition,* the chapter table given below is keyed into the pagination of the Talbot Press edition of 1918 (actually undate), which is introduced by Padraic Colum. For that Introduction, see RICORSO Library, “Irish Critical Classics” or attached].
The spellings in this version follow where possible the Tablot Press edition - e.g., mackrel for mackerel, and mo stoir for mo store - although the footnotes given in the Creighton version are retained beneath each chapter.
The use of inverted commas has been rationalised in keeping with the predominant rule, viz., double inverted commas for dialogue and single inverted commas for dialogue quoted within speeches - which occurs quite often in this text, especially where demotic characters are talking.
On the same principle I have eliminated unnecessary punctuation marks such as the comma prefixed to an opening bracket, thus: <, ( > - and replaced occasional < ... > with < - >, in conformity with the majority of instances in the Talbot edition. (I have also quashed < -, >, treating the comma as redundant. Additionally, any patent typographical errors - as in occasional French phrases - have been silently corrected. [See further editorial notes, infra.]
Remarks on editing
The Creighton copy text is not identified on the website but it is certainly not an American imprint unless using Irish or English plates since the British spellings -our, &c., are retained.
That being said, the variant spellings noted above and some others indicate a different type-setting, while the notes suggest a need to explain Anglo-Hibernian terms to the readership which the Talbot Press edition - being cheap and popular - does not find it necessary to include (whether they are the work of the author or an editor.)
As an indication of a pattern of error seemingly introduced by way of digital corrections editing in the production of the Creighton edition (presumably by scanning), where Talbot text reads ‘your [sic] such a fine Irishian’ the American edition has silently amended Irishian to Irishman on the supposition of error but added nonetheless the footnote which informs the reader that an Irishian is ‘[o]ne skilled in Irish antiquities, language, &c.’
Interestingly, the note supplied for the term as handselling/handsel is added in the Creighton text only on the second occurrence of the term suggesting that the editorial process was somewhat happenstance and unlikely to reflect the philological awareness of the author himself regarding such novelties in the text. On the other hand, the relatively literary and arcane not on the theft of butter by magic which closes Chapter 11 can only originate with the author or another invested with authority over the text.
The misspelling of your for the more grammatical you’re, occurring can only be attributed to the author or the original publisher and this has been silently corrected here. In some instances, however, the corrections in the American copy-text have been accepted, as where Myles na Goppaleen says to Creagh, ‘You cowed the North Countryman’, using upper-case where the Talbot Press edtion uses lower case (as also for ‘M’Farlane from the north’, a little higher up ian Chapter 9.)
In cases where the reading is widely variant - as in the inclusion of extra phrases - I have retained the longer formula providing it makes sense (as it does in all instances), e.g, “Where’s himself? Where’s Master Kyrle?”, in Chapter 9 - where the Talbot edition drops Where’s himself?
Note however such anomalous differences as ‘They were, nevertheless, well calculated for a lasting friendship’ in Creighton compared to ‘[...] well circulated for a lasting friendship’ in Talbot - a variance that favours the Creighton edition, and reveals that the Talbot addition may have been corrupted in resetting if the original is not itself corrupt. (Or could circulated be correct in some idiomatic sense unknown to this editor?) Similarly, I accept the spelling Dinis Cottage in the Creighton digital text where the Talbot edition has for Dinnis - given, in addition, that Dinis Island is the modern name of the relevant so-named spot in Killarney.
Where Talbot has “That’s a nate youth,” he said privately to Nelly. “That’s a nice pet, not judging him [...]”, Creighton has “That’s a nate youth,” he said privately to Nelly. “That’s a nice poet, not judging him [...]” (Chap. 16; our italics) - it is easy to guess that the latter has indulged in some over-correction of an unfamiliar idiom, assuming poet to be more suited to the Irish context.
Similarly, misspellings such as ‘danger or impedinsent’ (for impediment) in Creighton seem to reveal a careless and uneducated form of lexical conjecture, and perhaps an inattention to the printed text itself. When the same text comes up with ‘unpeeled potatoe’ amid of cluster of scanner-based errors, the suspicion of an amateur hand is confirmed. Spellings such as ‘canvass-built’ bear the same interpretation. It is notable, however, that both Creighton and Talbot use square brackets - [ ] where a modern publisher would use round - ( ).
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