Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T14:02:01.939Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

THE COPY FOR THE TEXT OF 1623

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

Get access

Summary

Stage-directions like ‘Enter Viola and Maluolio, at seuerall doores’ (2. 2. head) and ‘Maluolio within’ (4. 2. 22 S.D.) suggest that the manuscript from which Twelfth Night was printed in 1623 was, as we have found with most other texts hitherto issued in this edition, either itself a theatrical prompt-book or a transcript therefrom. This original, moreover, must have been a fine example of its kind, since the transmitted text contains very few verbal cruxes, most of them long ago solved, is furnished with stage-directions and punctuation which are on the whole both adequate and competent, and gives no serious trouble either in the arrangement of its verse or—except for some natural confusion between the speech-headings Fab. and Tob.—in the distribution of its speeches. In short, the Folio text is on the whole happy and well-ordered like the exquisite comedy it has preserved, and the task of an editor is light indeed in comparison with that presented him in All's Well, the play last issued in this edition. Yet there is one respect in which the editorial problems of the two plays are surprisingly alike. We found that All's Well had been neglected and that much work needed doing on its exegetic side. Twelfth Night, one of the most popular of all Shakespeare's productions, would have attracted, one might suppose, a full measure of attention from commentators.

Type
Chapter
Information
Twelfth Night
The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare
, pp. 89 - 102
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1930

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×