The Magistrate Part 59

The Heinemann (H) edition served as the copy-text for this transcription. The United States Book Company (US) edition changed spelling to American standards. For example, "colour" became "color", "recognise" became "recognize", "some one" became "someone", and "lor'" became "Lor'". The US edition also has minor deviations from playscript formatting conventions fairly standard at the time. While the H edition used the standard convention of printing entrances as centered and italicized without brackets, the US edition printed them with brackets. In addition, while the H edition generally did not close the brackets on stage directions right after a line of dialogue, the US edition did. Unfortunately, the H edition suffers from some minor editorial problems and printing errors such as missing punctuation marks, particularly next to margins and at the bottom of a page. In contrast, the US edition has few editorial or printing problems. When there was a question about the text in the H edition, the US text was consulted. In general, where context made a reading obvious, the obvious reading was given the benefit of the doubt without comment.

The following changes were noted:

- p. v: ..."The Schoolmistress," 'Dandy d.i.c.k," and "The Cabinet Minister."--Changed the single quotation mark before "Dandy" to a double quotation mark.

- p. vii: Added periods after "Mrs. JOHN WOOD" and "Miss MARION TERRY"

for consistency.

- p. 8: ...but I feel like a grown up man!--Inserted hyphen between "grown" and "up". (US)

- p. 14: May I promise that, m'am?--Changed "m'am" to "ma'am" to be consistent with elsewhere in H and also US ed.

- p. 15: MR. BULLAMY--Added a period to end of character t.i.tle.

- p. 26: He's a great favourite with all our friends--women friends especially--Added period to end of sentence.

- p. 37: MR. POSKET--Added a period to end of character t.i.tle.

- p. 37: [_Gives MR. POSKET the letter._]--Moved to next line (US) and deleted closing bracket to be consistent with other stage directions in H.

- p. 59: [_Produces a folded silk handerchief..._--Changed "_handerchief_" to "_handkerchief_".

- p. 63: There's a little balcony to that window, step out...--Changed comma to a semicolon. (US)

- p. 88: A few hours ago it was--"By Jove, all is over.'--Changed closing single quotation mark to closing double quotation mark.

- p. 90: I know--I know. I'm going directly I can get the boy away--Added period to end of sentence.

- p. 93: [_To VALE_] Horace, can't you speak?--Added period after "VALE" for consistency.

- p. 98: To be ready for the morning--Added period to end of sentence.

- p. 99: What is underneath that window, Mr. Blond--Added question mark to end of sentence.

- p. 100: You're breathing--Added period to end of sentence.

- p. 103: Very nice part, Colonel. Thank you--Added a period after "Thank you".

- p. 103: Horace Edmund Cholmeley Clive Napier Vale Captain--Shropshire Fusiliers--Stark's Hotel, Conduit Street.--Added a period after "Vale". (US)

- p. 110: ...a method of delivering evidence articulately--Added a period to end of sentence.

- p. 113: "Cos I'm agoin' to join in the chase after you."--Inserted an apostrophe before "Cos". (US)

- p. 114: Bring him in. [_LUGG goes out._ Wyke! From Agatha!--Added a closing bracket after "out."

- p. 115: Tell Mrs. Posket I will come on the moment the Court rises--Added a period to end of sentence.

- p. 119: Two contrived to escape--Added a period to end of sentence.

- p. 125: I regret to see you in this terrible position, Colonel Lukyn--Added a period to end of sentence.

- P. 126: He's in it sir.--Added a comma after "it". (US and consistent elsewhere in H)

- p. 126: [_LUKYN sits again._] [_POSKET takes up the charge sheet._]--Deleted closing and opening brackets after "again." (US)

- p. 134: _They turn their collars down, MR. POSKET takes MR.

WORMINGTON'S arm._--Changed comma to a semicolon. (US)

- p. 136: I haven t found 'em.--Added an apostrophe between "haven"

and "t".

- p. 137: It's my opinion he's got a softening of the brain--Added period to end of sentence.

- p. 137: [_He goes through the curtains._]--Moved to next line (US) and deleted closing bracket to be consistent with other stage directions in H.

- p. 144: [_Following him with the paper and inkstand_]--Added period after inkstand for consistency. (US)

- p. 150: I'm going to re-open the matter!--Added closing double quotation mark at end of sentence. (US)

- p. 153: ...who condemned his wife and sister in-law to the miseries of a jail!--Inserted a hyphen between "sister" and "in-law".

- p. 159: S-s-s h! Don't count!--Added hyphen between "S-s-s" and "h!"

(US)

- p. 161: _CHARLOTTE has entered, and she rushes across to VALE_--Added a period to the end of the sentence.

Some inconsistences that existed in both H and US were allowed to stand. For example, characters are occasionally referred to slightly differently in the stage directions, e.g., "POSKET" vs. "MR. POSKET".

The name of the hotel in Act Two is spelled with an "o" in the cast and scene lists at the beginning of the play but is spelled with an "o" elsewhere in the text. Lugg's rank is spelled "Serjeant" in the cast list and "Sergeant" elsewhere. Both "missis" and "missus" are used. The number for Lukyn's address is both "19a" and "19A". Variant spellings in H such as "neckkerchief" and "table-cloth" were not changed.

The html version of this etext attempts to reproduce the layout of the printed text. However, some concessions have been made, partly to simplify coding and partly to facilitate the generation of files from the html file. For example, stage directions at the end of a line of dialogue were placed on the next line, indented the same amount from the left margin, and coded as hanging paragraphs. The layout of the t.i.tle page was simplified. The simultaneous speech on page 81 was coded so as to avoid the use of an html table. The footnote on p. 110 was enclosed in a border.