The First Quarto of King Henry V

by William Shakespeare, Andrew Gurr (Editor)

Overview

The Quarto text of King Henry V is of unique importance. It has the authority of being transcribed by actors in Shakespeare's own company as a record of their first performances of the play at the Globe in 1599. Half as long as the 1623 First Folio version, it represents a practical staging text that streamlined the script supplied by Shakespeare. Andrew Gurr examines each variant from the Folio text in detail, shedding new light on what happened to scripts that the Shakespeare company bought from their resident playwright.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521623360
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2000
Series:	The New Cambridge Shakespeare: The Early Quartos
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Widely esteemed as the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an actor and theatrical producer in addition to writing plays and sonnets. Dubbed "The Bard of Avon," Shakespeare oversaw the building of the Globe Theatre in London, where a number of his plays were staged, the best-known of which include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. The First Folio, a printed book of 36 of his comedies, tragedies, and history plays, was published in 1623.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Preface; Abbreviations and conventions; Introduction; 1. The significance of the quarto text; 2. The nature of playhouse manuscripts; 3. The history of Henry V's quarto text; 4. The quarto printings; 5. The copy for and printing of Q1; 6. The so-called 'reporters' of Q1; 7. Compositor errors in Q1; 8. Mishearings from dictation; 9. Re-lineation; 10. Premeditated revisions; 11. Reassignments of parts; 12. Q's use of the cuts from F; 13. Verbal alterations for consistency; 14. Shakespeare's changes or the players'?; 15. Stage history; Note on the text; List of characters; The Play; Textual notes; Appendix 1: some of Q's re-lining of verse; Appendix 2: Q's rendering of Pistol's lines as verse; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

Gurr's useful edition will stimulate current debate about the Quarto and its origins, but will not settle it for all readers.
—Times Literary Supplement

H R. Woudhuysen

"Gurr's contentions will ignite interest among all serious readers of Shakespeare and may detonate a barrage of scholarly responses. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty and for professional collections." Choice

"The sixth release in Cambridge's useful books on the early quartos, this volume prompts fresh regard for what the quartos have to tell. Gurr's content will ignite interest among all serious readers of Shakespeare and may detonate a barrage of scholarly responses. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty and for professional collections." Choice

From the Publisher