Review by Choice Review
Taylor and Jowett analyze likely changes in Shakespeare's texts, especially 1616-23. Most of this research accompanied work on the Oxford Complete Works (1986-87), and it extends positions advanced in the authors' William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion (1987). Amidst wide-ranging applications of new bibliography methodologies, the book has three primary foci: (1) insertion of between-acts musical intervals, with extensive data to support the conclusion that, at the end of his career, Shakespeare regarded act-intervals as elements of dramatic meaning; (2) likely expurgations, caused by the "Acte to restraine Abuses of Players," May 1606, by scribal interpolation up to 1622-23, and by interference in the printing house in 1622-23; (3) analysis of many suspected interpolations in Measure for Measure, concluding that in addition to the accepted fact that "Take oh take those lips away" is by Fletcher (published in his Rollo, Duke of Normandy), we should ascribe primarily to Middleton two further passages inserted for a late revival of the play. Includes appendixes on the printer's copy for Folio 2H4, English Renaissance Dramatists' use of O/Oh, the date and authorship of Rollo, the texts of "Take oh take," and others. The authors' arguments are lucid, provocative, judicious, and exhaustively documented--and some scholars will doubtless consider them heretical. A "must" for scholarly collections of Shakespeare, especially for graduate students, researchers, and faculty. D. O. Dickerson; Judson College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
