The First Quarto of Romeo and Juliet

A full edition of the first quarto of Romeo and Juliet (1597), with helpful commentary.

Lukas Erne (Edited by)

9780521178266, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 June 2011

212 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.32 kg

Review of the hardback: 'His scrupulously annotated edition makes the full text of Q1 available for a general readership that can now readily compare the different versions of the play, and it provides excellent classroom material, for example, for in-depth courses on the Shakespearean text or on the first stagings of Shakespeare's plays.' English Studies

Two different versions of Romeo and Juliet were published during Shakespeare's lifetime: the second quarto of 1599, on which modern editions are usually based, and the first quarto of 1597. The latter version was long denigrated as a 'bad' quarto', but recent scholarship sees in it a crucial witness for the theatrical practices of Shakespeare and his company. The shorter of the two versions by about one quarter, the first quarto has high-paced action, fuller stage directions than the second quarto, and fascinating alternatives to the famous speeches in the longer version. The introduction to this edition provides a full discussion of the origins of the first quarto, before analysing its distinguishing features and presenting a concise history of the 1597 version. The text is provided with a full collation and commentary which alert the reader to crucial differences between the first and the second quartos.

Preface
Abbreviations and conventions
Introduction: 1. Textual provenance: a century of 'bad quartos'
Past thinking about Q1 Romeo and Juliet
The early draft / revision theory
Memorial reporters?
Stage abridgement, not memorial reconstruction?
Evidence of memorial agency
Alternatives to the traditional narrative
A version for the provinces?
Theatrical abridgement
Textual provenance: conclusion
2. Dramatic specificities: Pace and action
Stage directions
The betrothal scene
Characterization
Inconsistent time references
3. Publication and printing: The First Quarto in 1597
The First Quarto after 1597
Note on the text
List of characters
THE PLAY
Textual notes
Appendix A. Scene division
Appendix B. Casting and doubling
Appendix C. Bel-védere (1600)
Appendix D. Q1 in eighteenth-century editions of Romeo and Juliet
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare plays [DDS], Theatre studies [AN]