3 - Editions and Textual Studies

Summary

‘No longer the tiresome repetitions: “Who is the real author?” “Have we proof of his authenticity and originality?” ’, urges Michel Foucault. However, theorists who share his views continue to publish books under their own names – and to collect their royalties. And questions of authorship still arouse widespread interest. When they concern Shakespeare the stakes are high. For admission to the Shakespeare canon confers status on a work, guaranteeing sympathetic attention from critics, producers, readers, and playgoers. Had 1 Henry VI been excluded from the First Folio, would it have appeared quite the unified product of youthful genius that commentators find it today? And had the anonymous chronicle play Edmund Ironside, preserved in a manuscript of the late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth century, been included in the First Folio, would everyone have accepted its authenticity? Eric Sams believes so, and has published a modern-spelling edition with introduction and elaborate commentary designed to convince us that Edmund Ironside was written by Shakespeare at the beginning of his career as a dramatist.