The Cambridge Shakespeare
The Cambridge Shakespeareis a long-running series ofcritical editionsofWilliam Shakespeare's works published byCambridge University Press.The name encompasses three distinct series:The Cambridge Shakespeare(1863–1866),The New Shakespeare(1921–1969), andThe New Cambridge Shakespeare(1984–present).
The Cambridge Shakespeare(1863–1866)[edit]
The Cambridge Shakespearewas edited byWilliam George Clark,William Aldis Wright,and John Glover. It was released in nine volumes between 1863 and 1866. Clark and Wright used theFirst Folio(1623) as their base text and collated it with the second, third, and fourth folios as well as all the known quarto editions. The edition modernized the orthography to 19th-century standards rather than preserve the variableElizabethanspelling, but generally left the grammar and metre unchanged.
In the edition, each page of a play contains a critical apparatus at the end. Where the folio text differs markedly from the quarto editions the quarto text is included in small type after the main text. Notes on variants, emendations, or pointing out or clarifying passages of particular difficulty or interest are placed at the end of each play.
In what a modern editor called "a bold move for a Victorian edition", Clark and Wright restored various original phrases that had previously been considered profane, where needed to preserve metre or meaning.
In 2009,Cambridge University Pressreissued all nine volumes as part of theirCambridge Library Collectionwhich aims to preserve access to "books of enduring scholarly value". The reissued editions are:
- Clark, William George;Glover, John,eds. (2009) [first published 1863].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 1. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701191.ISBN9780511701191.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1863].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 2. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701207.ISBN9780511701207.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1863].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 3. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701214.ISBN9780511701214.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1864].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 4. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701221.ISBN9780511701221.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1864].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 5. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701238.ISBN9780511701238.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1865].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 6. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701245.ISBN9780511701245.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1865].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 7. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701252.ISBN9780511701252.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1866].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 8. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701269.ISBN9780511701269.
- Clark, William George;Wright, William Aldis,eds. (2009) [first published 1866].The Works of William Shakespeare.The Cambridge Shakespeare. Vol. 9. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511701276.ISBN9780511701276.
The New Shakespeare(1921–1969)[edit]
The New Shakespearewas published between 1921 and 1969.[1]The series was edited byArthur Quiller-CouchandJ. Dover Wilson.[1]
The earlier volumes of the series contain critical introductions by Quiller-Couch (signed "Q" ) and written in abelles lettresstyle that, according to R. A. Foakes inThe Oxford Handbook to Shakespeare(2003), have been "largely forgotten". The textual work by Wilson, however, "proved enormously influential."
In the 1921 edition ofThe Tempest,Wilson included afacsimileof themanuscriptforSir Thomas Moreand a full discussion of the copy for the texts, which afterward became required reading in the field. Shakespeare's hand in the manuscript forSir Thomas Morewas discovered byEdward Maunde ThompsoninShakespeare's Handwriting: A Study(1916)—and treated in detail in what is still the definitive study:Shakespeare's Hand in the Play of Sir Thomas More(1923) byAlfred W. Pollard,W. W. Greg,R. W. Chambersand Wilson—butThe New Shakespearewas the first series of editions to bring this discovery to bear on editing Shakespeare. The series was also the first to apply Pollard's recognition of the primacy of the quartos to textual work.
The last volume of the series wasHenry VIII,edited by J. C. Maxwell in 1969.[2]
The New Cambridge Shakespeare(1984–present)[edit]
The New Cambridge Shakespearebegan in 1984, and several editions were published each year, so that today, all of Shakespeare's plays and poems are available in the series. The series was designed to replaceThe New Shakespeareseries.
The New Cambridge editions feature lengthy introductions and copious annotation. They are distinctive in appearance, being taller in shape than most of their competitors. The earliest editions featured cyan covers with an illustration by C. Walter Hodges of the relevant play in performance on an Elizabethan stage. In the 1990s, these covers were replaced with a new uniform blue design featuring a multicoloured sketch of Shakespeare's face based on a drawing byDavid Hockney.In the 2000s, the series was reissued again with each play receiving a specific photographic image (in colour).
The earliest editions in the series feature drawings byC. Walter Hodgesthat reconstruct the appearance of the plays when first produced in theElizabethan theatre;this practice continued until Hodges' death in 2004.
Notable editions published in the series include the first ever edition of the disputed playEdward IIIto be published as Shakespeare's as part of a series; and a controversial edition ofPericles, Prince of Tyrethat rejects the conventional thesis that the play was poorly printed and the result ofcollaborative authorship.
The series also uniquely produces fully edited modern-spelling editions ofquartotexts when they differ significantly from the standard received text of the play. These include editions of thefirst quarto ofHamlet,thefirst quarto ofHenry V,quartoKing Lear,theRichard III,the quarto ofOthello,thefirst quarto ofRomeo and Juliet,andThe Taming of a Shrew,an alternate version ofThe Taming of the Shrew.
The general editors of the series arePhilip Brockbank(1984–1990) andBrian Gibbons(1990–present), with individual editors, or pairs of, assigned to cover separate plays and poetry.