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
Results 1-5 of 45
Page 1
... extant copies of the 1612 Passionate Pilgrim , only one bears Shakespeare's name on the title page , while the other copy omits it . Shakespeare's dis- pleasure seems to have been such that he requested a new title page for 1 Thomas ...
... extant copies of the 1612 Passionate Pilgrim , only one bears Shakespeare's name on the title page , while the other copy omits it . Shakespeare's dis- pleasure seems to have been such that he requested a new title page for 1 Thomas ...
Page 12
... extant writings suggest that he not only purchased , but was intimately acquainted with , the playbooks he owned . For instance , in his Rabelaisian Metamorphosis of Ajax , which , along with other satires , led to his banishment from ...
... extant writings suggest that he not only purchased , but was intimately acquainted with , the playbooks he owned . For instance , in his Rabelaisian Metamorphosis of Ajax , which , along with other satires , led to his banishment from ...
Page 14
... Extant books that had been in Drummond's possession - like his copies of Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labour's Lost , now in the library of the University of Edinburgh - show Drummond's careful overlinings of witty and poetic passages.45 ...
... Extant books that had been in Drummond's possession - like his copies of Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labour's Lost , now in the library of the University of Edinburgh - show Drummond's careful overlinings of witty and poetic passages.45 ...
Page 19
... extant letters written from Robert Daborne to Henslowe in 1613 show the playwright repeatedly begging for further in- stallments in partial payment of the ( now lost ) play Machiavel and the Devil which he is in the process of composing ...
... extant letters written from Robert Daborne to Henslowe in 1613 show the playwright repeatedly begging for further in- stallments in partial payment of the ( now lost ) play Machiavel and the Devil which he is in the process of composing ...
Page 26
... extant manuscript plays , and Restoration players ' quartos and promptbooks . Chapter 7 investigates the implications this argument has for modern editorial practices , particularly of Shakespeare's plays . Specifically , I subject to ...
... extant manuscript plays , and Restoration players ' quartos and promptbooks . Chapter 7 investigates the implications this argument has for modern editorial practices , particularly of Shakespeare's plays . Specifically , I subject to ...
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
Popular passages
Page 5 - But be contented : when that fell arrest Without all bail shall carry me away, My life hath in this line some interest, Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.