Shakespeare and Editorial Practices Discussion

This week we begin our investigation of Shakespeare and editorial practices.  Use this week’s response to pay attention to disagreements between two early versions of Romeo and Juliet and to think about why these differences might matter to readers and audiences of the play.  The first quarto of R&J, published in 1597, is known as the “bad” quarto because it was most likely created by a group of people familiar with the play by reconstructing it from memory.  It is very different from the second quarto of R&J, published in 1599, known as the “good” quarto, and considered the most reliable version of the play because it was probably based on Shakespeare’s manuscript drafts of the play.  The “good” quarto is also much longer than the “bad” quarto, suggesting that the first quarto of 1597 is missing substantial chunks of the play.  

Look carefully at the text of the 1599 quarto of Romeo and Juliet with textual variants (alternate words) from the 1597 quarto included.  The 1597 variant word or phrase should appear on the same line, but be highlighted and labeled “Q1.” You can also use the British Library’s “Comparing the Texts” (Links to an external site.) tool to view the 1597 quarto 1599 quarto versions of the play side by side.

Select one word or phrase that is different in the 1597 and 1599 editions and write a short response in which you discuss how using one word instead of the other might change the meaning of the line, or the impact of the speech on readers and audiences.  You may want to go back to the filmed live performance to see which word the director of the play has decided to use.