A Revised Account of the 1714 Works of Mr. William Shakespear

Description Mathieu D.S. Bouchard, 2021 Patnzer New Scholar This talk examines a crucial episode in the history of Shakespearean textual transmission. In 1709, the London bookseller Jacob Tonson hired Nicholas Rowe to edit the first eighteenth-century edition of Shakespeare’s plays. Rowe based the text of his plays on a copy of the 1685 fourth folio edition of Shakespeare’s works. In 1714, Tonson published another edition of Shakespeare’s plays, again ostensibly edited by Rowe. This edition is generally considered to have been a simple reprint of the 1709 edition, but, as this paper argues, the edition of 1714 was in fact the product of significant new editorial labour. The editor of 1714 made a series of edits that were based on his collation of the second Shakespeare folio of 1632. This new bibliographical evidence indicates that, although Rowe’s name appeared on the title page of the 1714 edition, he was probably not responsible for the changes made to the edition. The text was probably prepared, anonymously, by a writer named John Hughes. Scholars have long suspected that Rowe’s involvement in the 1714 edition of Shakespeare’s Works was minimal, yet this hypothesis has, until now, rested on minimal documentary evidence. This paper contributes new bibliographical evidence to the debate about Hughes and Rowe, and it also raises larger questions about anonymity and the important role of unnamed editorial agents in the transmission of canonical texts. Presented at the BSA Annual Meeting, January 29th, 2021. Sponsored by Les Enluminures.

AudiencesGraduates, Professionals, Scholars, Undergraduates

TagsBSA Annual Meeting, BSA New Scholars Program