The newset Folgers are very, very good, especially for the casual reader or the “Shakespeare-curious.” One of the best things is that the introductions don’t assume you’ve already read the play! So they’re great to hand to someone who is going to see some summer festival Shakespeare and would like to check it out in print. They also include a critical essay at the end of each play, and these are sometimes so good that they’ve changed my whole outlook on a play (Henry VIII, for example).

Most of the time, though, the Signet Classics are my favorites. Very readable, with one of the best footnoting schemes around. They also come with a whole selection of critical essays, excerpts from source material, and solid textual notes. Very approachable, but you can still dig deep with them.

For heavy-duty scholarship, I pick up the Arden editions, but these are so clogged with notes that I find it very diffficult to _read_ these editions–they’re more for _consulting_.

There are several vary good on-line ‘editions’ – I use the PlayShakespeare (http://www.playshakespeare.com/) ones myself.

Many of the Folio and Quarto texts are available also – so back to the original if you can cope (and a lot more people will be able to cope than think).

For sticking in my pocket and reading by the river I tend to take the Penguin Shakespeare – right size, not too heavy (both in terms of weight and scholarship) – explanations at the back if needed, and a reasonable intro essay at the front – both on the text, on the performances of the play and on ‘further reading’.