This course will study Shakespeare, his plays, and his poems as they were and are materially instantiated in print. Among other topics, we will explore the nature of Shakespearean authorship and canonicity; the relationships among performance, script, actor’s part, and printed play; attribution and “misattribution”; revision and multiple texts; censorship; quartos and folios; representations of writing and reading; and the afterlife of Shakespeare from the first folio to the contemporary moment. Our readings will include Hamlet (Q1, Q2, F), King Lear (Q, F), and The Rape of Lucrece, as well as several other plays.