Author Description

This Companion grew out of the years of research undertaken to produce The Oxford Shakespeare. Its general introduction surveys the present state of knowledge about how Shakespeare's works reached print, and describes the editorial procedures that guided the editors of the parent work. In addition, the editors provide an introduction for each work, describing its principal textual characteristics, and outlining what is known or can be reliably conjectured about its manuscript origins. Textual notes to the works provide lists of variant readings, indicate the play's original stage directions, record editorial departures from the control-text, and offer detailed discussions both of doubtful readings and of recent modernizations. Changes to spelling features and punctuation of control texts are also recorded as are lineation changes. Both an essential companion to The Oxford Shakespeare and a valuable reference tool for all students of Shakespeare, this volume is an important contribution to Shakespearean scholarship.