THE SHAKESPEARE CANON

-When was the "original text" written by Shakespeare?

-"When" were the plays written (or first performed)?

The problem of the text:

-No playwright considered his play for publication; they were only concerned with the staging of the plays.

-No attention on the written text.

-Plays not considered literary texts.

-Text published copied from copy-books, promptbooks, reconstructed from notes or from memory.

The "quartos" and the "folios":

-Unreliable editions called "bad", published in quarto size à "Bad quartos".

-First accurate and complete edition of Shakespeare: 1623, edited by Hemminges and Condell. Folio sized à First Folio.

-Nowadays, texts à Reconstruction made by philologists.

The problem of the date:

- Date of composition and of performance: often unknown à Guess the date of the play taking into account external and internal evidences.

External evidences:

- Plays:

                -Mentioned in the Stationers' Register.

                -We know from contemporary documents where the Play was performed.

                -Mentioned in other authors' works.

Internal evidences:

- References to contemporary historical events.

-Use of expression and images that come from other books whose date is well-known.

-Style that helps to give a date.

The dating of the plays:

-E.K. Chambers à attempt at dating Shakespeare's plays.