Stolne and Surreptitious Copies: A Comparative Study of Shakespeare's Bad Quartos

(Paperback)

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Back in print, first published in 1942 This volume was the first book devoted entirely to an investigation of the many problems associated with the relation between the 'stolne and surreptitious copies' of which Heminge and Condell complain in their address 'To the great Variety of Readers,' and the corresponding plays of Shakespeare printed by them in the first folio. For nearly two and a half centuries prior to the publication of the important Cambridge Shakespeare of 1863-6, many editors and commentators held firmly to the opinion that these words condemned all the quarto editions published in the life-time of the poet. They preferred to rely on the folio version for the text of a play although careful collation had previously proved that the folio text of this play had been set up from one of the earlier quarto editions.

Author Bio

Alfred Hart (1870-1950), scientist, educator and Shakespearean scholar, was born on 5 December 1870 on a farm in Cedar County, Iowa, United States of America, son of Frederick Hart, farmer, and his wife Ellen, nee Latham; his parents were on a visit from Birmingham, England, and shortly returned there. Alfred arrived at Melbourne with his father, brother and sister in September 1879. He won a scholarship to Melbourne Church of England Grammar School in 1884, carrying off the Agar Wynne prizes for Latin in 1885 and Greek in 1886.