{"id":1410,"date":"2016-10-27T13:48:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T11:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/?page_id=1410"},"modified":"2017-09-30T21:37:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T19:37:35","slug":"the-source-of-the-1597-quarto-identified","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/shakespeare-1616-2016\/the-first-night-of-romeo-juliet\/the-source-of-the-1597-quarto-identified\/","title":{"rendered":"The Source of the 1597 Quarto Identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

C(h)orus ……………………………………………………..<\/span> 2 Sonnets of masqued technical perfection
\nWilliam Shakespeare (*1564)<\/p>\n

Comparing prologues in their capacity as sonnets is all it needs to recognize Q1 as an authorized edition. Especially when aware of the fact that both quarto editions and the 1623 First Folio combine the respective opening speeches to a regular sequence :<\/p>\n

……………………………………..<\/span> Q1 ……………………….<\/span> Q2 ……………………….<\/span> F1
\nAct 1 ……………………<\/span> The Prologue ………<\/span> The Prologue : Corus …………<\/span> –
\nAct 2 ……………………………..<\/span> – ……………………..<\/span> Chorus …………………<\/span> Chorus<\/p>\n

No theory on pirate editions has so far recognized the prologue\u2019s maiming by Q1 as deliberate. But Q2 all the same points the author\u2019s finger at the third quatrain for liquidation : AA-lines that audibly fail to meet the sonnet\u2019s overall standard on rhyme, and a B-line between them that is visibly below par for any sonnet. Flaws that are both dealt with, when Q1 effectively finishes the lines in question off by rewriting them as a \u2018death-marked passage\u2019. In the process defining a B-line as \u2018a home straight that cuts some corners\u2019 :<\/p>\n

….<\/span> Q2 ….<\/span> The fearfull passage of their death-markt loue,
\n……………<\/span> And the continuance of their Parents rage: …………………<\/span> 11 syll. in strong rhyme
\n……………<\/span> Which but their childrens end nought could remoue<\/em> :
\n……………<\/span> Is now the two houres trafficque of our Stage.<\/p>\n

…<\/span> Q1 ……<\/span> And death-markt passage ………………………………………………<\/span> (line partly deleted)
\n………………………………………………….<\/span> of their Parents rage ……………….<\/span>\u00a0 (line partly deleted)
\n………………………………………………………………………………………………………<\/span> (line removed<\/em>)
\n……………<\/span> Is now the two howres traffique of our Stage.<\/p>\n

Chance moves in mysterious ways, but neither a reconstruction from some actor\u2019s recollections, nor a stenographer hiding in the audience can explain such intelligent design in full. Theories that have their problems anyway with making sense of the average pirate edition. But an early draft accounts for every deviation from the original as stored in the theatre\u2019s safe. Keep the play\u2019s owner off the scent by omitting the occasional fragment to suggest losses in transmission, and suddenly it is not some outside spy or anonymous co-worker who steals from Shakespeare\u2019s employer, but The Bard himself (he bought New Place, the second best house in Stratford, on 4 May : less than a month after Q1\u2019s latest possible date of publication). What other source would have failed to produce some account of old Capulet\u2019s opening of scene 1 ; 2 ? Without, the scene is clearly decapitated. Which makes this scenario the first theory on bad quartos ever, that for credibility needs to include a proper justification for leaking classified information to the press :<\/p>\n

Not even a city of a quarter of a million makes much of a market for copies of a Shakespeare play. Its buyers would in majority have purchased the copy because they had seen the play to begin with. Shakespeare was always ready to accommodate a lower class market, but that was not exactly a book market.His readers still came from the minority of – middle and upper class – theatre goers who had mastered the alphabet. How to make a profit here?<\/p>\n

Firstly, publish the much applauded Romeo and Juliet<\/em> in 1597 through a rather suspect channel, and it will sell. Secondly, launch a second edition in 1599. By a publisher of good reputation this time. And make sure that its title page makes its predecessor look bad, with a recommending \u2018newly corrected, augmented, and amended\u2019 : it will sell to the same people again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C(h)orus …………………………………………………….. 2 Sonnets of masqued technical perfection William Shakespeare (*1564) Comparing prologues in their capacity as sonnets is all it needs to recognize Q1 as an authorized edition. Especially when aware of the fact that both quarto editions and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1369,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1410\/revisions\/1686"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}