THE SHAKESPEARE CANON

-The problem of  the text

At Shakespeare's time plays weren't considered:  the actors  paid no attention to the written text and plays were not considered literature.

 àthe most successful plays were published without the author's permission, copied by copy-books or prompt books; or from the notes by someone in the audience or from memory by one of the players themselves.

•è They were unreliable

-The ‘quartos' and the ‘folios'

These unreliable texts are usually called ‘bad', and they were published in quarto size ( a whole paper folded in twice to form four leaves) they are referred to as ‘bad quartos'. Some of these were reliable because the author may have agreed to supervise the work or because the editor had used the original manuscript.

The first fairly accurate and complete edition of Shakespeare's work was published in 1623 edited by two actors of his company. It was ‘folio' sized so they called it First Folio.

The Shakespeare's text that we read today are not the originals but a mix of comparing texts considerate available.

-The problem of the date

We have to guess the date of a play taking into account external and internal evidence.

-External evidence

•-          a play may be mentioned in Stationers' Register

•-          from contemporary documents

•-          other authors' works

-Internal evidence

•-          a play may contain references to contemporary events

•-          it may use expressions and images that come from other books whose date we know for certain

•-          the style

-The dating of the plays

The most authoritative attempts at dating Shakespeare's plays was made by E.K. Chambers. He divided into four phases Shakespeare's plays :

•-          First phase : the apprenticeship

•-          Second phase: chronicle plays and love comedies

•-          Third phase: tragedies and dark comedies

•-          Fourth phase: the romances