Comments on: Editions of Shakespeare

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:50:15 +0000

50 years ago, as an English major, I used the Arden editions. They were just coming into print at the time and not all plays were covered. Back then they were beautifully produced paperbacks on quality paper. The content and layout was good, with an excellent introduction and exhaustive footnotes. They would get my vote.
About 20 years ago I had a major move and a massive book clearout. The Arden editions went.
Today I had a notion to take another look at part of the canon, so I was looking around to see if anything better had come on the market during the last generation.
From what I see on this blog, it appears not.

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By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:20:45 +0000

I find myself going back to three editions, over and over.

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_.

By: A.K.Farrar

A.K.Farrar — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:19:54 +0000

I’ve just started to ‘review’ The Penguin Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona over on my blog for anyone interested enough to view it. As I work through the canon I hope to explore various other editions – although expect a very personal response rather than reasoned assessment!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:59:53 +0000

I like the New Folger Library editions, but that may just be force of habit; in high school and most of college, whenever we’d study or perform (of course you can’t perform without studying…) a Shakespeare play, this was the edition the teacher/director had available. I enjoy the accessibility and depth of the footnotes, as well as the explanations in the front of how the edition was put together.

By: A.K.Farrar

A.K.Farrar — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:47:24 +0000

Why buy at all nowadays?

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’.