Shakespeare as Literary DramatistIn this groundbreaking study, Lukas Erne argues that Shakespeare, apart from being a playwright who wrote theatrical texts for the stage, was also a literary dramatist who produced reading texts for the page. The usual distinction that has been set up between Ben Jonson on the one hand, carefully preparing his manuscripts for publication, and Shakespeare the man of the theatre, writing for his actors and audience, indifferent to his plays as literature, is questioned in this book. Examining the evidence from early published playbooks, Erne argues that Shakespeare wrote many of his plays with a readership in mind and that these 'literary' texts would have been abridged for the stage because they were too long for performance. The variant early texts of Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, and Hamlet are shown to reveal important insights into the different media for which Shakespeare designed his plays. |
From inside the book
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Page 6
... England , print had become widespread . Elizabethan England was in many ways “ a printing age " in which " reading was no longer the prerogative of a few . " 13 In the last two decades of the sixteenth century , an average of about 280 ...
... England , print had become widespread . Elizabethan England was in many ways “ a printing age " in which " reading was no longer the prerogative of a few . " 13 In the last two decades of the sixteenth century , an average of about 280 ...
Page 7
... England as well as in the rest of Western Europe , the institutions of the printing press and the modern theater " grew up together . " Whereas a performance critic like William Worthen believes that " Shakespeare's works were perhaps ...
... England as well as in the rest of Western Europe , the institutions of the printing press and the modern theater " grew up together . " Whereas a performance critic like William Worthen believes that " Shakespeare's works were perhaps ...
Page 9
... England , Fynes Moryson for his Itinerary , Caleb Morley for " a book invented by him for the helpe of memory and grounding of Schollars in severall languages , " Joseph Webb " for the teaching the languages after a newe sorte by him ...
... England , Fynes Moryson for his Itinerary , Caleb Morley for " a book invented by him for the helpe of memory and grounding of Schollars in severall languages , " Joseph Webb " for the teaching the languages after a newe sorte by him ...
Page 10
... England . Unlike many poets of his own time , however , Shakespeare was first and foremost a playwright . Providing the company in which he was also an actor and shareholder with scripts , Shakespeare was a participant in an ...
... England . Unlike many poets of his own time , however , Shakespeare was first and foremost a playwright . Providing the company in which he was also an actor and shareholder with scripts , Shakespeare was a participant in an ...
Page 11
... England . Students of Elizabethan drama have often been told that early quarto playbooks represented mere ephemera , to be read and discarded . Fredson Bowers is among those who have argued that " plays were not regarded as ' literature ...
... England . Students of Elizabethan drama have often been told that early quarto playbooks represented mere ephemera , to be read and discarded . Fredson Bowers is among those who have argued that " plays were not regarded as ' literature ...
Contents
The legitimation of printed playbooks in Shakespeares time | 31 |
The making of Shakespeare | 56 |
Shakespeare and the publication of his plays I the late sixteenth century | 78 |
Shakespeare and the publication of his plays II the early seventeenth century | 101 |
The players alleged opposition to print | 115 |
TEXTS | 129 |
Why size matters the two hours traffic of our stage and the length of Shakespeares plays | 131 |
Editorial policy and the length of Shakespeares plays | 174 |
Bad quartos and their origins Romeo and Juliet Henry V and Hamlet | 192 |
Theatricality literariness and the texts of Romeo and Juliet Henry V and Hamlet | 220 |
The plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries in print 15841623 | 245 |
Heminge and Condells Stolne and surreptitious copies and the Pavier quartos | 255 |
Shakespeare and the circulation of dramatic manuscripts | 259 |
262 | |
278 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abridgement acted actors Andrew Gurr anonymous appeared argued argument Beaumont and Fletcher Bibliography Blayney Cambridge University Press chapter Clarendon Press comedies copy dramatist Edward England evidence extant Folio text Greg Gurr Hamlet hath haue Heminge and Condell Henry Heywood Ibid John Jonson King Lear King's King's Men length Library lines literary London long texts Lord Chamberlain's Lord Chamberlain's Men Love's Labour's Lost manuscript playbooks memorial reconstruction Merry Wives modern omitted Oxford University Press passages Pavier play's players playhouse playtexts playwrights poems printed playbooks printer private transcripts Publication of Playbooks quarto of Hamlet quarto of Romeo quote readers revision Richard Richard III Robert Romeo and Juliet scene scholars script second quarto seems seventeenth century Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays Shrew sixteenth Sonnets Spanish Tragedy Stationers Studies suggests Tamburlaine Textual Companion theater Thomas title pages Troilus and Cressida W. W. Greg William Shakespeare written
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