The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.1906  Monday, 30 July 2001

From:           John Briggs <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 30 Jul 2001 09:34:22 +0100
Subject: 12.1837 Re: Arden Editions
Comment:        RE: SHK 12.1837 Re: Arden Editions

One difference between Arden2 and Arden3 is the heavy emphasis that
Arden2 placed on bibliography (and textual bibliography in particular).
I sometimes find that I have to go back to an Arden2 edition for a
quarto collation, or bibliographic transcription of a title page
(although Arden3 will often give a facsimile!).  Arden2 also usually
gave Shakespeare's principal source as an appendix.  This difference of
emphasis is masked by the vastly greater scope of the Arden3
introductions and their being completely up to date.  The introductions
of some Arden3 editions have no separate discussion of the "text"!  (To
be fair, most of the information required is there somewhere.)  The
Arden3 emphasis on performance history is not an innovation: it is
largely following the lead of the Oxford Shakespeare.

I think I can claim to be unbiased: my only interest is that I have a
complete set of Arden2 (insofar as it was complete, of course, the
Sonnets were announced but never published!), and purchase the Oxford
and Arden3 volumes as fast as they are published!

Sadly, these British editions seem not to sell well in the United
States.  The problem may be as much vocabulary as orthography...

John Briggs

Buffy: You might wanna avoid words like "amenable" and "indecorous".
Speak English, not whatever they speak in...

Giles: England?

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