The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.11640 Thursday, 30 June 2005
[1] From: William Proctor Williams <
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Date: Wednesday, 29 Jun 2005 10:03:45 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
[2] From: Gabriel Egan <
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Date: Wednesday, 29 Jun 2005 17:21:25 +0100
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
[3] From: Kathy Dent <
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Date: Wednesday, 29 Jun 2005 21:54:44 +0100
Subj: RE: SHK 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: William Proctor Williams <
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Date: Wednesday, 29 Jun 2005 10:03:45 -0400
Subject: 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
It doesn't have to be even as extreme as Bill Arnold suggests. For
example, +Hamlet+ 1.5.40-41 [in some modern editions] offers us:
O my prophetike soule, my vncle! my vncle! Q1
O my propheticke soule! my Vncle? Q2
O my Propheticke soule: mine Vncle? F1
and this comes out as,
O my prophetic soul! My uncle! Arden2
O my prophetic soul!
My uncle? Riverside, Cambridge3 & Oxford3 &
Pelican3
as well as,
tIqwIj: leSSov vIghajlaw'! vavIoDnI'wI'!
in Klingon
How texts read, even in the finest detail, matters.
William Proctor Williams
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gabriel Egan <
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Date: Wednesday, 29 Jun 2005 17:21:25 +0100
Subject: 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
Jack Heller wrote:
>I thought of long ways of responding to this, but perhaps the
>best way is to recommend a book, UNEDITING THE
>RENAISSANCE by Leah Marcus.
Upon finishing this book, I'd recommend reading:
Leah Marcus "Afterword: Confessions of a reformed uneditor" in Andrew
Murphy (ed) _The Renaissance text: Theory, editing, textuality_
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000) pp. 211-216.
It would only be overstating the case a little to say that the
experience of actually doing some editing (of the works of Queen
Elizabeth 1) appears to have made Marcus take back a lot of what's in
the monograph.
Gabriel Egan
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kathy Dent <
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Date: Wednesday, 29 Jun 2005 21:54:44 +0100
Subject: 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
Comment: RE: SHK 16.1161 Lucrece Variants
Bill Arnold comments: "Written contracts are absolutely dependent upon
every *single* word and the meaning of a valid contract misread by a
lawyer can put the whole business underlying the document into question."
True, but a play is not a contract.
He then goes on to suggest: "For instance, if the usurper King Claudius
were to say in one folio "O nephew, I did not murder your father, Old
Hamlet, so what?" and in another folio with one word missing-say, found
by our illustrious Hardy, and proving my point-were to say, "O nephew, I
did murder your father, Old Hamlet, so what?" do you still hold to your
concept that textual interpretation would be meaningless?"
Leaving aside the hypothetical nature of this example, I would hold that
the rest of the play - especially Hamlet's reply to this remark and any
following dialogue that may occur in this fantasy play in Bill's mind -
would suggest the meaning of these textual variants: whether, for
example, this is a revising hand or whether it's more likely to be a
scribal or compositorial error. Whatever discussion were to be had
about this single word variation, I contend that it would not and could
not alter the meaning of the whole play.
Kathy Dent
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