In Search of Shakespeare's Anonymous Editors
L. A. Beaurline
Eleanor Prosser, who is known primarily as a literary critic, has written a lively book on one of the most vexing problems in the editing of Shakespeare: the relationship between the quarto (1600) and the folio (1623) versions of Henry IV Part Two. The study of textual criticism to which these problems belong has been mostly the province of specialists, for whom Prosser writes as an enthusiastic newcomer to the subject, and she is able to show them a thing or two. The reader cannot help but like her forthrightness and her passion for incisive distinctions and illuminating details. Above all, she writes such readable prose that her explanations of technical matters can be understood by any student of Shakespeare. This is indeed a well-focused, vigorous, and mostly persuasive work, full of zest from beginning to end.
She concludes that, although the folio edition of 2 Henry IV contains eight genuinely Shakespearean passages of about 156 lines not found in the quarto, the rest of the many significant variants in F have little authority. For example, she demonstrates in great detail how the compositor who set much of the folio played fast and loose with the script, sometimes compressing, sometimes expanding speeches to fit the allotted pages. Therefore, the new readings in F that can be traced to the compositor's habits should be questioned. This part of the analysis appears to be sound, and it is set forth beautifully.
