![]() ![]() ![]() As these include some of Shakespeare’s most highly esteemed works – Macbeth, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra – the notion of the author caring deeply about publication seems not to exist. Indeed, without the efforts of Heminge and Condell there are some eighteen plays that would have disappeared entirely their first printed appearance is in the 1623 First Folio. Authorial rights to the original was not a concept recognized at the time and certainly Shakespeare appears to have shown no consistent interest in seeing his plays through the printing house. Heminge and Condell, the editors of Shakespeare’s First Folio, refer to ‘maimed and deformed’ copies with which unscrupulous ‘imposters’ had ‘abused’ the public. It seems that ‘Bad Quartos’ of some of Shakespeare’s texts were the result of ‘memorial reconstruction’, the attempt to recall the play in its entirety from cue scripts (or from memory) in order to scramble together a sellable commodity. ![]() But precisely who delivered the manuscript to the printers and what exactly was delivered is a vexed question. Popular plays might then be published, although very few of the huge number performed did reach the printing house. In these circumstances, the text was far from a fixed product it evolved and changed to meet the exigencies of the moment – whether viii INTRODUCTION ix theatrical, political or just practical. By the time the play had been successfully performed – and perhaps revived – there would have been several manuscript versions of the same play in existence at any one time. At this stage, the text could be subject to considerable alteration: music, songs, prologues and epilogues could be added, and actors might themselves suggest changes to the written text or add necessary stage directions. This fair copy would need to be approved by the Master of the Revels before it could be licensed for performance. Texts were copied, in the first place, probably by a professional scribe, from the original ‘foul papers’ for use as a working promptbook (by which point a number of transcription errors had doubtless been introduced). The life of the author’s handwritten manuscript was an uncertain one it was vulnerable to ephemeral changes in popularity as well as being physically fragile. Plays were first for performance and the scripts were the property of the acting company, open to whatever changes were considered expedient or artistically desirable. The modern relationship between author, text and publisher bears no similarity to the situation of the early modern playtext. There is, of course, no ‘authentic’ text of any one of Shakespeare’s plays in that no manuscript editions survive. Such textual variants offer subtly nuanced differences and individual readers, actors or directors exercise their own choices from these possibilities. vii INTRODUCTION Text Students of Hamlet are probably accustomed to debating whether the protagonist refers to ‘solid’, ‘sullied’ or ‘sallied’ flesh in his first soliloquy. Further reading suggestions provide useful secondary sources that have not been cited within the chapter, with some interesting examples of creative reworkings of the featured works. A range of critical approaches is represented, including close analysis of both film and drama texts in each chapter. There is also frequent reference to stage performances, some of which can be researched further on the appropriate theatre website (the RSC and National Theatre websites offer plentiful material on past performances). Each chapter features one film adaptation of an early modern drama all of these are available on DVD to enable them to be viewed alongside the book’s commentary. Original spelling has been retained for texts for which there is no accessible modern edition. This book references early editions of works such as treatises, conduct books and scientific studies, and these can be readily found by an internet search. Digital texts, such as the British Library’s facsimiles of Shakespeare quartos, are especially useful for research and for understanding more about the way plays were presented in published form. A wealth of early modern texts is now easily accessible online, thanks in part to the initiatives of early modern scholars to take advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies. While it is not intended as a comparative study, affinities between texts of the period will inevitably present themselves, thereby developing an alertness to dramaturgical fashions, textual nuances, as well as to key signifiers of the age. USING THIS BOOK This book is organized around historical topics or critical areas which inform the study of early modern texts, each chapter exploring a play by Shakespeare alongside one by his contemporaries. ![]()
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