The Tragedie of Julius Caesar

by Shakespeare, William; Freeman, Neil

• ISBN13: 9781557832894
• ISBN10: 1557832897
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-10-01
• Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books

Summary

The First Folio of 1623 was prepared for print by two members of Shakespeare's acting troupe -- John Hemings and Henry Condell -- which included comic actor Will Kemp and the great tragedian Richard Burbage. In a fascinating and detailed introduction, Freeman points out that because Shakespeare and his colleagues wrote from a rhetorical tradition -- a society where the emphasis was on the spoken word -- he wrote with an eye to how he wanted his plays performed, giving as much direction as possible to his actors. Freeman looks at what is known of the printing of that First Folio and analyzes the variations between the First Folio, later Folios, Quarto editions (where available) and modern editions of the plays. He examines the "corrections" made by editors over the centuries that have shaped the way we perceive Shakespeare today -- from the regularization of verse, to the changes from prose to verse (and vice versa) and the standardization of character prefixes.

Table of Contents

GENERAL INTRODUCTION	v	(34)
DEFINITIONS OF AND GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHIC COPIES OF THE EARLY TEXTS	v	(2)
WELCOME TO THESE SCRIPTS	vii	(3)
MAKING FULL USE OF THESE TEXTS	x	(12)
WHAT MODERN CHANGES WILL BE SHOWN	x	(6)
Words and phrases	x	(1)
Line structure changes related to problems of `casting-off'	x	(1)
Lines structure changes not related to problems of `casting-off'	xi	(1)
The special problems affecting what are known as `shared' or `split' verse lines	xii	(3)
The unusual single split line	xv	(1)
SENTENCE AND PUNCTUATION STRUCTURES	xvi	(6)
Dropping a line to illustrate F1's sentence structure	xvii	(1)
The highlighting of the major punctuation in these texts	xviii	(4)
PRACTICAL ON-PAGE HELP FOR THE READER	xxii	(7)
THE VISUAL SYMBOLS HIGHLIGHTING MODERN ALTERATIONS	xxii	(3)
THE VISUAL SYMBOLS HIGHLIGHTING KEY ITEMS WITHIN THE FIRST FOLIO	xxv	(1)
ACT, SCENE, AND LINE NUMBERING SPECIFIC TO THIS TEXT	xxvi	(3)
COMMON TYPESETTING PECULIARITIES OF THE FOLIO AND QUARTO TEXTS	xxix	(4)
FOOTNOTE CODE	xxxiii	(4)
ALPHABETICAL FOOTNOTE CODING	xxxiii	(1)
FOOTNOTE CODING BY TOPIC	xxxiv	(1)
ONE MODERN CHANGE FREQUENTLY NOTED IN THESE TEXTS	xxxv	(2)
A BRIEF WORD ABOUT THE COMPOSITORS	xxxvii	(2)
THE PLAY	xxxix
INTRODUCTION TO THE TRAGEDIE OF JULIUS CAESAR	xxxix	(12)
DRAMATIS PERSONAE	li
THE TEXT	1	(96)
APPENDICES THE UNEASY RELATIONSHIP OF FOLIO, QUARTO, AND MODERN TEXTS	97