oks, to the Bodleian Library in 1639. Under the
terms of his will the Bodleian was to have first choice of his books,
unless it already had duplicates, and Christ Church, Burton's college,
second choice. Along with =Philos and Licia=, the Bodleian received the
following other minor epics from Burton's collection: =Pigmalion's
Image= (1598), =Venus and Adonis= (1602), =Samacis and Hermaphroditus=
(1602), and =Hero and Leander= (1606).[31] Burton regularly wrote his
name in full, some abbreviation thereof, or at least his initials, on
the title page of his books, usually across the middle. In =Philos and
Licia=, Burton's heavily and distinctively written initials RB are
written a bit below the middle of the title page, on either side of
the printer's device.[32] Also in its typical location at the bottom
of the title page is found "a curious mark, a sort of hieroglyphic or
cypher," which Burton almost always affixed to his books. The
significance of this device remains obscure; it "has usually been
supposed to represent the three 'R's' in his name joined
together."[33]

Although the dedication of Dunstan Gale's =Pyramus and Thisbe= is dated
November 25, 1596, no copy of an earlier edition than that printed in
1617 for Roger Jackson is extant. The unsophisticated, highly
imitative style of the piece, the date of the dedication, and the fact
that the printer's device in the 1617 edition is an old one, used
previously in 1586-87 by Ralph Newbery,[34] to whom Jackson was
apprenticed from 1591-99,[35] suggests that the poem was originally
published by Newbery about 1596. Probably this first edition had the
same device as the edition of 1617, and a similar title page.
According to Newbery's will, Roger Jackson and John Norcott were to
receive his stock of books on Fleet Street, but McKerrow, citing the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 30, Hudlestone as his authority, says
the offer seems not to have been taken up.[36] Gale's poem would seem
to constitute an exception to this generalization.

=Pyramus and Thisbe= was also issued with Greene's =Arbasto= in 1617. On
Jan. 16, 1625/26 Gale's poem was transferred from Roger Jackson's
widow to Francis Williams,[37] who had it printed for the last time in
1626.

Nothing of note has been turned up with regard to the first and only
early edition of Lynche's =Dom Diego and Ginevra= (1596).

According to their first modern editor, A. B. Grosart, the first and
only early editions of =M