| SOME MISTAKES OF THE EDITORS. SOME MISTAKES OF THE ACTORS. THE CHARACTER OF LADY MACBETH. SHAKESPEARE’S JEW AND MARLOWE’S CHRISTIANS. THE AUTHORS OF “KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.” “TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.” |
II
THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE[4]
Neither in the theatre nor on the printed page can it be said that Shakespeare’s dramas to-day reflect the form of his art or the thought of his age. The versions acted on the stage are unlike those read in the study, and all are dissimilar to the “authentic copies.” In order to understand the cause of these discrepancies it is necessary to trace their origin and history.
Some Mistakes of the Editors
A number of Shakespeare’s plays were published during his lifetime, the first, “The Comedy of Errors,” appearing in 1595, and the last one, “Pericles,” in 1609. Some of these plays went through several editions, and the text of four of them, in their first edition, was extremely faulty, but the second editions of “Romeo and Juliet” and of “Hamlet” were probably printed direct from the author’s manuscripts.
The special features of these early quartos are:
1. The title-pages, which indicate what in Shakespeare’s time were the popular incidents and characters in each play.
2. The unbroken continuity of the story, the plays having no divisions to suggest where pauses were made, if any, during the representation.