A Concise Companion to Shakespeare and the Text

by Murphy, Andrew R.

• ISBN13: 9781405135283
• ISBN10: 140513528X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-06-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Shakespeare's works were among the very first English secular texts to be edited. The long history of adapting them has positioned them as a catalyst for theories of editing and textuality. A Concise Companion to Shakespeare and the Text introduces the early editions, editing practices, and publishing history of Shakespeare's plays and poems, and examines their influence on bibliographic studies as a whole. Written by leading scholars in the field, this comprehensive text examines the history of Shakespeare's works in their subsequent editions, as well as the theories and practicalities of working with the texts. The first single-volume book to provide an accessible and authoritative introduction to Shakespearean bibliographic studies, this succinct text is an excellent resource for both students and faculty.

Author Biography

Andrew Murphy is Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of Shakespeare in Print: A History and Chronology of Shakespeare Publishing (2003), the editor of The Renaissance Text: Theory, Editing, Textuality (2000), and co-editor of Shakespeare and Scotland (2004).

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. x
Note on Texts	p. xi
Introduction: What Happens in Hamlet?	p. 1
Histories of the Books	p. 15
The Publishing Trade in Shakespeare's Time	p. 17
Reading and Authorship: The Circulation of Shakespeare 1590-1619	p. 35
Shakespeare Writ Small: Early Single Editions of Shakespeare's Plays	p. 57
The Life of the First Folio in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries	p. 71
Theories of Editing	p. 91
The Birth of the Editor	p. 93
The Science of Editing	p. 109
Editing Shakespeare in a Postmodern Age	p. 128
Shakespeare and the Electronic Text	p. 145
Practicalities	p. 163
Working with the Text: Editing in Practice	p. 165
Working with the Texts: Differential Readings	p. 185
Mapping Shakespeare's Contexts: Doing Things with Databases	p. 204
Afterword	p. 221
Bibliography	p. 239
Index	p. 258
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