Department of English

This course will study Shakespeare’s plays, 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; the transformation of the plays from quarto pamphlets to quarto and folio books; and the Shakespeare "collection". We will play particular attention to Hamlet as well as the collection of “Shakespeare” plays that were published by Thomas Pavier in 1619, including Pericles, King Lear, Sir John Oldcastle and its twin, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2.