THE SKASPEARE CANON

Since playwrights used not to publish their plays, there are some problems about dating the original texts. As a matter of fact plays were not considered literature. As a consequence we don’t know when these texts have been written and performed. However it is possible to do some hypothesis making reference to some sources. For example some plays are mentioned in the “Stationers’ Register”; other plays are mentioned in some other author’s works about which we know the date of composition. Some plays contain descriptions of contemporary historical events therefore it is possible to date them; some other plays use images taken from other books.

The most successful plays were published without playwright’s permission. They were copied from Promptbooks or from memory’s audience or player’s, therefore these publications were unreliable.

There were some editions considered reliable called “bad quartos” since they were published in quarto size.  Some of them were good because the author agreed to supervise the work or the editor published the original version. In 1623 the first complete edition of Shakespearean works was published. It was called “First Folio” since it was folio size. This work has been realized by Hemminges and Condell.