ABSTRACT
There are records of the text of The Platonick Lovers progressing through three significant states. The Q text (1636 Quarto), probably set from manuscript (which has not survived), is the only substantive edition. Q served as copy-text for the version printed in O (1665 Octavo), which is a reprint bearing very little evidence of authorial revision. Scores of substantive revisions, though, occur in the text contained in F (1673 Folio), which was based on the text of O. F is therefore a twice-removed, revised reprint of Q, according to Greg’s criteria 1 . The alterations in F range from minutely subtle adjustments in diction and punctuation to the excision of entire speeches, and were in all probability made by Davenant in anticipation of a stage revival.
