Textual Performances
The Modern Reproduction of Shakespeare's Drama

Brings together leading scholars to examine crucial questions regarding the theory and practice of editing Shakespeare's plays.

Lukas Erne (Edited by), Margaret Jane Kidnie (Edited by)

9780521830959, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 May 2004

248 pages, 6 b/w illus. 3 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.555 kg

'… the diversity of its approaches and methodologies makes it a stimulating and necessary guide which continuously draws the reader's attention to the ambivalences and inconsistencies of Shakespeare's text.' Modern Literary Review

This important collection brings together leading scholars to examine crucial questions regarding the theory and practice of editing Shakespeare's plays. In particular, the essays look at how best to engage editorially with evidence provided by historical research into the playhouse, author's study and printing house. How are editors of playscripts to mediate history, in its many forms, for modern users? Considering our knowledge of the past is partial (in the senses both of incomplete and ideological) where are we to draw the line between legitimate editorial assistance and unwarranted interference? In what innovative ways might current controversies surrounding the mediation of Shakespeare's drama shape future editorial practice? Focusing on key points of debate and controversy, this collection makes a vital contribution to a better understanding of how editorial practice (on the page and in cyberspace) might develop in the twenty-first century.

List of illustrations
Preface
List of contributors
Introduction Lukas Erne and Margaret Jane Kidnie
Part I. Establishing the Text: 1. The two texts of Othello and early modern constructions of race Leah S. Marcus
2. 'Work of permanent utility': editors and texts, authorities and originals H. R. Woudhuysen
3. Housmania: episodes in twentieth-century 'critical' editing of Shakespeare Paul Werstine
4. Addressing adaptation: Measure for Measure and Sir Thomas More John Jowett
5. The New Bibliography and its critics Ernst Honigmann
6. Scholarly editing and the shift from print to electronic cultures Sonia Massai
Part II. Presenting the Play: 7. 'Your sum of parts': doubling in Hamlet Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor
8. The perception of error: the editing and the performance of the opening of Coriolanus Michael Warren
9. Modern spelling: the hard choices David Bevington
10. The staging of Shakespeare's drama in print editions Margaret Jane Kidnie
11. Open stage, open page? Editing stage directions in early dramatic texts John D. Cox
12. Two varieties of digital commentary John Lavagnino
13. New collaborations with old plays: the (textual) politics of performance commentary Barbara Hodgdon
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: general [DSB]