A Midsummer Night's Dream arrow Created with Sketch. Front Matter

Credits

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Edited by
Richard F. and Judith M. Kennedy
with
Susan H. May
David Nicol
Roberta Barker

Preface

Horace Howard Furness’s edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the tenth in his ambitious New Variorum project, appeared in 1895. The present edition is built in large part on his model, but is neither a revision nor replacement. The text offered here is based on the First Quarto of 1600, and collated with all significant texts printed since that date to 2007, not the First Folio reprint to which Furness faithfully adhered. Other parts of the present edition attempt to accommodate over a hundred years of additional comment and performance, as well as to represent Furness’s work, though often necessarily abbreviated. The 1895 edition remains useful and delightful for its fuller presentation of 18th and 19th c. opinion and of Furness’s own lively comments.

For various reasons, the preparation of this edition has been spread over many years, and involved many people. Ruth L. Widmann and Richard F. Kennedy prepared the text; Richard Kennedy and Paul Werstine prepared the Textual Notes, Emendation of Accidentals, Unadopted Conjectures, and the Plan; Paul Werstine, the Textual Appendix; Susan H. May, the appendix on Criticism; Roberta Barker, Music in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; David Nicol, A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the Stage; Richard and Judith M. Kennedy, the Commentary Notes; Judith Kennedy the rest. All have helped one another; in particular Susan May’s unpublished doctoral dissertation was of great help to the Kennedys in beginning work, and she has continued with ready assistance through the years. We are all indebted to Richard Knowles, not only for his indispensable Shakespeare Variorum Handbook, but also for his personal support and valuable comments on drafts of sections. More recently Eric Rasmussen has also provided considerable assistance. Paul Werstine has far exceeded the responsibilities of a New Variorum General Editor in taking on the work of textual editor and coordinating editor when illness prevented the Kennedys from completing their duties.

Other individuals have assisted in various ways: Uta Doerr, Elizabeth Kennedy Klaassen and John F. Reynolds gave help with Latin, Greek and German translation; Walter Kemp advised on musical matters; Trevor Sawler devised computer programs for collation; Erika Buiteman, Mary Kate Didyk, Rachel Jones, James Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Tracy Lutz helped in gathering material and proofreading.

The editors thank their respective institutions, Dalhousie University, Longwood University and St. Thomas University for their support, specifically in financial aid, leaves of absence, and office space. Thanks go also to the libraries of these institutions, Killam Library, Greenwood Library, and Harriet Irving Library, especially to the interlibrary loan staffs. Generous financial support was provided to the Kennedys by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Many libraries offered their resources and hospitality. It is a joy and privilege to be allowed to work in great libraries and have access to their collections of rare books, helped by friendly and learned staff. Our thanks go to the Folger Shakespeare Library; the Henry E. Huntington Library; the Furness Memorial Library, University of Pennsylvania; the New York Public Library; the Boston Public Library; the Library of Congress; the Libraries of Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Duke, and North Carolina Universities; Dartmouth College Library; Alderman Library, University of Virginia; the British Library; the Bodleian Library; the Libraries of Trinity College and Pembroke College, Cambridge; Edinburgh University Library; the Shakespeare Centre Library of Stratford-upon-Avon; the Theatre and Performance Archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

We hope those who bring A Midsummer Night’s Dream to life in their minds and on stages will find something of interest and profit in this edition.

J. M. K.

Plan of the Work

This edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream has four main parts: (1) a text of the play reprinted with little change from its first edition in the Quarto of 1600 (Q1); (2) textual notes recording significant departures from the Q1 in sixty editions of the play ranging in date from 1619 to 2007; (3) commentary on the meaning or the verbal art of the text taken from previous editions, dictionaries, commentaries, and critical works; and (4), an appendix, comprising the second half of this edition, containing general discussions of the play’s text, date, sources, critical and theatrical interpretations, and music. This appendix is followed by a bibliography and an index.

The text printed here derives from the copy of the First Quarto of A Midsommer nights dreame (1600) in the Folger Shakespeare Library (STC 22302), with its uncorrected press variants altered to the corrected states. (For these press variants, see here.) The transcript of the Folger copy was compared with Michael J. B. Allen and Kenneth Muir’s Shakespeare’s Plays in Quarto: A Facsimile Edition (Berkeley, 1981) and with Thomas L. Berger’s A Midsommer nights dreame, 1600 (Oxford, 1995), the object being to make the Variorum text as accurate as possible. Silent alterations of the Q1 text include the representation of roman long s by s; the printing of ligatures (e.g., roman ss and st) as two letters; the suppression or reduction of display types, ornaments, printing space types, quads, and packing; the alignment of irregular letters and normalization of spacing (except in some instances noted below); the positioning of marginal stage directions to the right regardless of their placement in the Q1 line; and the correction of wrong-font types, including alteration of italic punctuation marks to roman in a roman context and vice versa. Other errors are corrected when there is no doubt what the true reading should be. In a few instances missing punctuation is supplied, words turned up or down by Q1 because the full line of text exceeded the measure of the column are printed in one line, and conventional closing punctuation is substituted for other marks at the end of completed speeches where no suspension seems intended. A list of these changes appears on here. The line numbers of the text are the Through Line Numbers introduced by Charlton Hinman in The Norton Facsimile: The First Folio of Shakespeare (New York, 1968), but the headlines include, as well, the act-scene-line numbers of the 1974 Riverside MND, edited by G. Blakemore Evans. Riverside act and scene divisions are indicated by boldface numerals in the right margin. Also in the right margins, signature indicators of the beginning of each page in Q1 appear in square brackets, and signature and column indicators of the beginning of each column of the First Folio text of 1623 (F1) appear in parentheses.

The textual notes record alterations in the meaning or meter of the Q1 text found in the editions collated; alteration of meaning was decided by the variant’s receiving separate listing in the Oxford English Dictionary and a different definition. Modernizations of form are ignored. So are misprints unless the misprint creates an English word or was taken for a word. Conjectural emendations are included in the textual notes if the reading has been adopted by one of the editions collated; others are in the list of unadopted conjectures (see here). Alterations in punctuation and capitalization are ignored unless the alteration creates a different meaning. Stage directions added or altered in later editions appear only if the action implied by Q1 is affected in a major way.

Variant lining affecting meter—verse as prose, prose as verse, verse as different verse—is noted. The elision or expansion of syllables is recorded only if the alteration shifts the word’s accent or alters the number of feet in a verse line. When words that may be elided must be elided to make regular verse (e.g., in the to one-syllable i’th), it is assumed that elision was intended and no note is provided.

The expression one verse line indicates that part lines of verse shared by speakers have been arranged to indicate that taken together they constitute a pentameter. If the subject of the note is variant punctuation only, a word in the lemma that is repeated in the variant is represented there by a swung dash ( ~ ), and the absence of punctuation is indicated by an inferior caret (‸). Editions are represented by the sigla listed on here and on the endpapers of this book.

The basic form of the textual note may be illustrated by

1345 vnto] into F4-pope2, han1
which records the fact that in line 1345—I tould him of your stealth vnto this wood—the Fourth Folio of 1685 and editions following through Pope’s second edition of 1728 for vnto in the Variorum text read into. Theobald’s editions of 1733 and 1740 read into and so are represented by an honorable absence, but Hanmer’s edition of 1744 reverts to into. Warburton’s edition of 1747 restores the Q1 reading and is followed by all other collated editions.

Another type of textual note employs the formula etc. For example,

2076 beames]  ~  Q1-F1, sis, pen2, and; streames F2-hal, dyce1, col3, ktly, col4, oxf1; gleams knt1 conj., sing2, stau (text; streams in addenda), wh1 etc.
Here the editions that read with the Variorum text (Q1-F1, sis, pen2, and) appear first, then those that read streames, then those that read gleams, sing2 being the first to do so, and etc. means and all other editions collated but not already accounted for.

Yet another kind of note employs the + sign to refer to all the collated editions that date after the one indicated by the siglum that is followed by the + sign. Thus

506 gate] gait cap, mal+
means that Capell’s edition of 1768 and Malone’s of 1790, as well as all succeeding collated editions, read gait.

Still another type of note makes use of family sigla:

169 remote] remouèd F1-john1, knt, wh1
knt here represents both of Knight’s editions (1839 and 1867) that were collated, but not Knight’s edition of 1842, which was only quoted from occasionally. Sometimes the family siglum will not be based on the editor’s name; cam, for example, indicates the Cambridge editions of 1863 (cam1), 1924 (cam3a), and 1984 (cam4). In the note above, as in first and second notes quoted, the hyphen, as one might expect, represents through. Elsewhere a minus sign is used to indicate exclusion:
150 eyes] eie F1-dyce1 (−col1, col2), ktly, knt3, oxf1
means that Collier’s first two editions read not eie but eyes, as does the lemma. Had Collier read eyeballs the note would have been
150 eyes] eie F1-knt1, hud1, sing2-dyce1, ktly, knt3, oxf1; eyeballs col1, col2

Although most variant readings originate in editions, some are found in other sources:

498 The] Thy mtby3 conj., col2, col3, col4
Here the variant originates in Styan Thirlby’s manuscript notes in a volume of Theobald’s edition of 1733 (see here), where it is considered a conjecture because it does not appear in a published edition. The reading does appear in Collier’s edition of 1853 (and it also occurs in his third and fourth editions of 1858 and 1875). The note does not mean, however, that Collier necessarily found the reading in Thirlby’s notes. Here and in similar notes the variant is given in the form in which it was first printed rather than in the sometimes eccentric form of its manuscript source.

Added stage directions calling for action clearly implied by the text are not recorded, nor are those calling in different words for essentially the same action as the stage direction of the text. The abbreviation subst. indicates that although their language differs, the collated stage directions have the same significance. For example,

1964 Holding up one hand, with a finger separated rann, cam3a (subst.)
There is no equivalent of Rann’s stage direction in Q1; it is derived from Wall’s speech in the play-within-the-play:
That I am that same wall; the truth is so.

And this the cranie is, right and sinister,

Through which the fearefull louers are to whisper.
Wilson’s (cam3a) version of the stage direction, while not identical to Rann’s, is close enough in its meaning not to require separate listing; it reads he stretches forth his fingers. The note has no lemma because no direction appears in Q1.

Beneath the textual notes is commentary on specific words or passages in the text. The glosses and explanatory notes of many editions of MND are quoted there, and definitions are drawn from works of reference and dictionaries, especially the Oxford English Dictionary but also dictionaries from or nearer to Shakespeare’s time such as Robert Cawdrey’s A Table Alphabeticall (1604), John Minsheu’s Ductor in Linguas, The Guide into Tongues (1617), and Thomas Blount’s Glossographia (1656), as well as Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755). Foreign language dictionaries— Thomas Thomas’s Dictionarum Linguae Anglicanae (1587) and John Florio’s English-Italian A Worlde of Wordes (1598), for example—are sometimes used. Alexander Schmidt’s Shakespeare-Lexicon and C. T. Onions’s Shakespeare Glossary are the sources of many definitions, and E. A. Abbott’s Shakespearian Grammar and Wilhelm Franz’s Die Sprache Shakespeares are frequently alluded to. In general, the first comment to be made is quoted, but if a later one is clearer, more accurate, or more explicit, it appears instead. In these notes and elsewhere square brackets within quotations enclose corrections or comments made by the editors of this volume; the square brackets of the quotations themselves have been transformed to angle brackets (< >). The spelling and punctuation of the works cited are retained except that if the beginning or the end of a sentence has been omitted but a complete sentence remains, it is provided with a beginning capital or a final period. Initial capitals are also supplied for direct discourse. No notes are printed entirely in italics even though the source may have done so.

The remainder of the edition begins with a list of the Q1 readings emended in the present text. Following that is another collection, a listing of proposed substantive emendations never adopted in the editions of MND collated. The subsequent sections are more general. Included are an essay on the text of the play—its authenticity, the printing and publication of Q1, Q2, and F1, the nature of printer’s copy for each, and the possibility of revision in the Q1 text and between it and F1. A second essay considers the date of the play’s composition; a third examines the play’s sources, that is, its most usually accepted probable sources. Other possible sources that have garnered significant critical support are also mentioned. Following is a selection of the literary criticism of the play and then a stage history that includes a record of how the text has been altered for the theater, an account of important performances, and a discussion of the actors who have taken major roles, as well as of directors responsible for significant interpretations. Finally, there is an account of the songs and dances that embellish the play’s dialogue and action.

The versions of MND published in the following editions were collated for substantive differences from Q1. Each title is preceded by the siglum that identifies the edition in the textual notes and other textual apparatus. The place of publication of these and all other books mentioned throughout the edition is London unless otherwise specified.

Q1 A Midsommer nights dreame. 1600 Q2 A Midsommer nights dreame. [1619] F1 Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. 1623 F2 Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies . . . The second Impression. 1632 F3 Mr. William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies . . . The third Impression. 1663–4 F4 Mr. William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies . . . The Fourth Edition. 1685 rowe1 Nicholas Rowe. Works. 6 vols. 1709. Vol. 2. (Supplementary Vol. 7 1710.) 1709 rowe3 Nicholas Rowe. Works. 8 vols. 1714. Vol. 2. 1714 pope1 Alexander Pope. Works. 6 vols. 1725. Vol. 1. 1725 pope2 Alexander Pope. Works. 8 vols. 1728. Vol. 1. 1728 theo1 Lewis Theobald. Works. 7 vols. 1733. Vol. 1. 1733 theo2 Lewis Theobald. Works. 8 vols. 1740. Vol. 1. 1740 han1 Thomas Hanmer. Works. 6 vols. Oxford, 1743–4. Vol. 1. 1744 warb William Warburton. Works. 8 vols. 1747. Vol. 1. 1747 theo4 Lewis Theobald. Works. 8 vols. 1757. Vol. 1. 1757 john1 Samuel Johnson. Plays. 8 vols. Printed for J. and R. Tonson, C. Corbet . . . , 1765. Vol. 1. 1765 cap Edward Capell. Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. 10 vols. [1768.] Vol. 3. 1768 v1773 Samuel Johnson & George Steevens. Plays. 10 vols. 1773. Vol. 3. 1773 v1778 Samuel Johnson & George Steevens. Plays. 10 vols. 1778. Vol. 3. 1778 rann Joseph Rann. Dramatic Works. 6 vols. Oxford, 1786–[94]. Vol. 2. 1787 mal Edmond Malone. Plays & Poems. 10 vols. 1790. Vol. 2. 1790 v1793 George Steevens & Isaac Reed. Plays. 15 vols. 1793. Vol. 5. 1793 v1803 Isaac Reed. Plays. 21 vols. 1803. Vol. 4. 1803 v1821 James Boswell. Plays & Poems. 21 vols. 1821. Vol. 5. 1821 sing1 Samuel W. Singer. Dramatic Works. 10 vols. Chiswick, 1826. Vol. 2. 1826 knt1 Charles Knight. Works. Pictorial Ed. 55 parts. [1838–43.] Reissued in 8 vols. Part 13 (vol. 1). 1839 col1 John Payne Collier. Works. 8 vols. 1842–4. Vol. 2. 1842 hud1 Henry N. Hudson. Works. 11 vols. Boston & Cambridge, Mass., 1851–6. Vol. 2. 1851 col2 John Payne Collier. Plays. 1853 sing2 Samuel W. Singer. Dramatic Works. 10 vols. 1856. Vol. 2. 1856 hal James O. Halliwell. Works. 16 vols. 1853–65. Vol. 5. 1856 stau Howard Staunton. Plays. 50 parts. 1856–60. Reissued in 3 vols. 1858–60. Part 8 (vol. 1). 1857 dyce1 Alexander Dyce. Works. 6 vols. 1857. Vol. 2. 1857 col3 John Payne Collier. Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, & Poems. The Second Edition. 6 vols. 1858. Vol. 2. 1858 wh1 Richard Grant White. Works. 12 vols. Boston, 1858–66. Vol. 4. 1858 cam1 William George Clark & William Aldis Wright. Works. Cambridge Sh. 9 vols. 1863–6. Vol. 2. 1863 dyce2 Alexander Dyce. Works. 2nd ed. 9 vols. 1864–7. Vol. 2. 1864 ktly Thomas Keightley. Plays. 6 vols. 1864. Vol. 1. 1864 glo William George Clark & William Aldis Wright. Works. Globe Ed. Cambridge. 1864 knt3 Charles Knight. Works. Pictorial Ed. Second Edition. 8 vols. Vol. 1. 1867 col4 John Payne Collier. Plays & Poems. 8 vols. 1875–8. Vol. 2. 1875 hud2 Henry N. Hudson. Works. Harvard Ed. 20 vols. Boston, 1880–1. Vol. 3. 1880 wh2 Richard Grant White. Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, & Poems. Riverside Sh. 3 vols. Boston, 1883. Vol. 1. 1883 irv Henry Irving & Frank Marshall. Works. Henry Irving Sh. 8 vols. New York, 1888–90. Vol. 2. 1888 oxf1 W. J. Craig. Works. Oxford Sh. [1891] ard1 Henry Cuningham. MND. Arden Sh. 1905 rltr E. K. Chambers. Works. Red Letter Sh. [1905] nlsn William Allan Neilson. Works. Cambridge Ed. Boston. 1906 cam3 Arthur Quiller-Couch & John Dover Wilson. MND. Cambridge. 1924 rid Maurice R. Ridley. MND. New Temple Sh. 1934 kit1 George Lyman Kittredge. Works. Boston. 1936 alex Peter Alexander. Works. London & Glasgow. 1951 sis Charles Jasper Sisson. Works. 1954 pel1 Madeleine Doran. MND Pelican Sh. Baltimore. 1959 evns G. Blakemore Evans et al. Works. Riverside Sh. Boston. 1974 ard2 Harold F. Brooks. MND. Arden Sh. 1979 cam4 R. A. Foakes. MND. New Cambridge Sh. 1984 oxf2 Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor et al. Works. Oxford Sh. (Modern Spelling) Oxford. 1986 ban2 David Bevington. MND. Bantam Sh. 1988 dig Mario DiGangi. MND. Barnes & Noble, New York. 2007

The editions, books, and manuscripts listed below are also referred to. Although all editions mentioned in the textual notes have been fully collated, only readings that they first print or, in a few instances, revive after long disuse are reported. Readings from revised editions (n&h, cam3b, pen1a) appear only when those editions differ from their predecessors.

Q2fl7 MS notes in Q2, Copy 7, Folger Library. 1619– cox [Robert Cox]. The Merry conceited Humors of BOTTOM The Weaver. 1661 set [Elkanah Settle]. The Fairy-Queen: An Opera. 1692 rowe2 Nicholas Rowe. Works. 6 vols. 1709. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. 1709 lev Richard Leveridge. The Comick Masque of Pyramus and Thisbe. 1716 mtheo1 Lewis Theobald. MS notes in F2. Folger Library, Copy 20. 1723–33 mtby2 Styan Thirlby. MS notes in Pope’s 1725 ed. Beinecke Library, Yale. Vol. 1. 1725–33? mtheo2 Lewis Theobald. Letters to William Warburton. Phillipps MS 8565, Folger Library. Vol. 1. 1729–34 mlong Roger Long. MS notes in F2. Pembroke College Library, Cambridge. –1733? mtby3 Styan Thirlby. MS notes in Theobald’s 1733 ed. Folger Library, Copy 2. 1733–47? mjenn Charles Jennens. MS notes in Q2. Folger Library, Copy 2. 1733–73 mhan1 Thomas Hanmer. Letters to William Warburton. BL. 1735–9 mtol George Tollet. MS notes in Theobald’s 1740 ed. Folger Library, Copy 4. 1740–79 mhan2 Thomas Hanmer. MS notes in Theobald’s 1733 ed., Folger Library, Copy 6. –1744 lam John Frederick Lampe. Pyramus and Thisbe: A Mock-Opera. 1745 mF2fl48 MS notes in F2. Folger Library, Copy 48. –1747 mtby4 Styan Thirlby. MS notes in Warburton’s 1747 ed. Folger Library, Copy 2. 1747–53 mwarb1 William Warburton. MS notes in Warburton’s 1747 ed. Folger Library, Copy 5. 1747–79 dodd1 William Dodd. The Beauties of Shakespear. 1st ed. 2 vols. 1752 gar David Garrick. The Fairies. An Opera. 1755 john2 Samuel Johnson. Plays. 8 vols. Printed for J. and R. Tonson, H. Woodfall . . . , 1765. Vol. 1. 1765 mwarb2 William Warburton. MS notes in Johnson’s first 1765 ed. Folger Library, Copy 1. 1765–79 mstv1 George Steevens. MS notes in v1773. 1773–8 m1773fl3 MS notes in Johnson & Steevens’s 1773 ed. Folger Library, Copy 3. 1778?– dodd2 William Dodd. The Beauties of Shakespear. 3rd ed. 2 vols. 1780 capn Edward Capell. Notes and Various Readings to Shakespeare. 1783 v1785 Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, & Isaac Reed. Plays. 10 vols. 1785. Vol. 3. 1785 mstv3 George Steevens. MS notes in Steevens & Reed’s 1793 ed. Bodleian Library, Malone C.179–93 [MND in vol. 5, Malone C. 183]. 1793–1800 v1813 Isaac Reed. Plays. 21 vols. 1813. Vol. 4. 1813 mcal Thomas Caldecott. MS notes in v1813. 1813–33 reyn [Frederick Reynolds]. MND. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. 1816 harn William Harness. Dramatic Works. 8 vols. 1825. Vol. 2. 1825 mgrin Thomas Grinfield. MS notes in Harness’s 2nd ed., 1830. Folger Library. 1834–63 mcole Samuel T. Coleridge. MS notes in Works . . . with notes . . . by Mr. Theobald. 8 vols. 1773. BL C.45.a.21. Vol. 1. c. 1834 phel Samuel Phelps. Dramatic Works. 2 vols. [1851–4] Issued in parts. Vol. 1. [1851–4] mcol1 John Payne Collier. MS notes in F2, Perkins Copy. Huntington Library. c. 1850 colne John Payne Collier. Notes and Emendations. 2nd ed., rev. & enl. 1853. (1st ed. 1852.) 1853 cln1 William Aldis Wright. MND. Clarendon Press Sh. Oxford. 1877 cam2 William Aldis Wright. Complete Works. 9 vols. Cambridge, 1891–3. Vol. 2. 1891 v1895 Horace Howard Furness. MND. New Variorum Sh. Philadelphia. 1895 warw E. K. Chambers. MND. Warwick Sh. 1897 h&m Karl J. Holzknecht & Norman E. McClure. Selected Plays. 4 vols. New York, 1936–41. Vol. 2. 1937 pen1 G[eorge] B. Harrison. MND. Penguin Sh. 1937 n&h William Allan Neilson & Charles J. Hill. Plays & Poems. Cambridge, Mass. 1942 pen1a George B. Harrison. MND. Penguin Sh. rev. ed. 1953 mun John Munro. Works. London Sh. 6 vols. 1957. Vol. 1. 1957 pen2 Stanley Wells. MND. New Penguin Sh. 1967 cam3b John Dover Wilson & Arthur Quiller-Couch. MND. Cambridge. 1968 oxf3 Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor. Complete Works. Oxford. Original Spelling ed. 1986 and1 John F. Andrews. MND. Guild Sh. New York. 1989 and2 John F. Andrews. MND. Everyman Sh. 1993 folg2 Barbara A. Mowat & Paul Werstine. MND. New Folger Library Sh. New York. 1993 oxf4 Peter Holland. MND. Oxford Sh. 1994 bev3 David Bevington. Works. 4th ed. 1997 pel3 Russ McDonald. MND. Pelican Sh. 2000

The following sources are occasionally quoted in the commentary or critical discussion:

John Christopher Smith. The Fairies: An Opera Taken from A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1755. (Rpt. in The Plays of David Garrick: Garrick’s Adaptations of Shakespeare, 1744–1756, ed. Harry William Pedicord and Fredrick Louis Bergmann. 7 vols. Carbondale. 1981.) 1755 [Samuel Johnson]. Plays. Dublin. 6 vols. 1771 Francis Gentleman. Plays. Bell’s Ed. 9 vols. [1773–4.] Vol. 8. 1774 David Garrick. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Written by Shakespeare, With Alterations and Additions, and Several New Songs. As Performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane. 1763 [Samuel Ayscough]. Dramatic Works. Stockdale’s Ed. 1784 Samuel Ayscough. Dramatic Works. New ed. 3 vols. 1790. Vol. 1. 1790 Manley Wood. The Plays. 14 vols. 1806. Vol. 3. 1806 [Thomas & Henrietta Bowdler]. Family Shakspeare. 4 vols. 1807. Vol. 1. 1807 Michele Leoni. Sogno di una notte di mezza estate. Torino, 1818. 1818 G[eorge] D[aniel]. MND. Cumberland’s British Theatre. 39 vols. 1823–31. Vol 20. 1828 William Harness. Dramatic Works. 8 vols. 1830. Vol. 2. 1830 A. J. Valpy. Plays & Poems. 15 vols. 1832–4. Vol. 3. 1833 [J. R. Planché.] MND. As revived at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, 16th Nov. 1840. 1840 Charles Knight. Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, and Poems. 2nd ed. 12 vols. 1842–4. Vol. 2. 1842 Bryan Waller Procter. [Pseud. Barry Cornwall.] Works. 3 vols. 1843. Vol. 1. 1843 Gulian C. Verplanck. Plays. Illustrated Sh. 138 (?) parts [New York, 1844–7]. Reissued in 3 vols. New York, 1847. Parts 59–62 (vol. 2). 1845 [Henry Tyrrell]. Complete Works. 4 vols. London & New York: Tallis, [1850–53] Vol. 1. 1850 James O. Halliwell. The Comedies. Printed for private circulation only. 1854 Charles Kean. MND. Arranged for representation at the Princess’s Theatre. 15 Oct. 1856. 1856 Nicolaus Delius. Werke. 7 vols. Elberfeld, 1854–[61]. Vol. 5. 1859 W. C. Jourdain. MS notes in v1821. Folger Library, Copy 2. Vol. 1. c. 1860 R. Carruthers & W. Chambers. Dramatic Works. Chambers’s Household Edition. 10 vols. 1861–1863. Vol. 3. 1861 Charles & Mary Cowden Clarke. Plays. Cassell’s Illustrated Sh. 270 pts., 1864–9. Reissued in 3 vols. [1864–9.] Pts. 41–6 (vol. 1). 1864 François-Victor Hugo. Oeuvres complètes. 18 vols. Paris, 1865–73. Vol. 2. 1865 Richard Grant White. Works. 12 vols. Boston, 1857–66. Vol. 4. 1866 Émile Montégut. Oeuvres complètes. 10 vols. Paris, 1867–73. Vol. 1. 1867 François Guizot. Oeuvres Complètes de Shakspeare. 2 vols. Paris: Didier et Cie, 1868. 1868 John Hunter. MND. Longmans Series. 1870 C. F. De Wickedé. MND. The School Edition. Altenburg. 1875 William J. Rolfe. MND. New York. 1877 Frederick J. Furnivall. The Leopold Shakspere. 1877 Samuel Neil. MND. Collins’ School and College Classics. London and Glasgow. 1878 Henry N. Hudson. MND. Annotated English Classics. Boston. 1880 J. W. Ebsworth. Shakespeare’s Midsummer night’s dream: the first quarto, 1600: a facsimile in photo-lithography / by William Griggs. 1880 J. W. Ebsworth. Shakespeare’s Midsummer night’s dream: the second quarto, 1600: a facsimile in photo-lithography / by William Griggs. 1880 W. Wagner & L. Proescholdt. Works. 12 vols. Hamburg, 1879–91. Vol. 3. 1881 Charles E. Moberly. MND. Rugby. 1881 Henry N. Hudson. Introduction. Sh.’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Introduction, and Notes Explanatory and Critical. Boston. 1882 John S. Hart. Complete Works. Handy Stratford Ed. 13 vols. Philadelphia, 1886. Vol. 2. 1886 Anon. MND. W. & R. Chambers. 1886 Henry Morley. MND . . . with Nymphidia. Cassell’s National Library. New York. 1886 Herbert A. Evans. MND. University Sh. 1887 Anon. MND. Gill’s English Classics. 1887 A. Daly. MND. Arranged for Representation at Daly’s Theatre. Jan. 31, 1888. Preface by W. Winter. 1888 Henry Johnson. MND: facs. rpt. of the text of F1. Boston. 1888 William Cullen Bryant & Evert A. Duyckink. Works. 3 vols. New York. Vol. 1. 1888 K. Deighton. MND. (Rev. 1906.) 1891 William Aldis Wright. Complete Works. 9 vols. Cambridge, 1891–93. Vol. 2. 1891 J. Moyr Smith. MND. 1892 A. W. Verity. MND. Cambridge. Pitt Press Sh. 1893 Reginald Brimley Johnson. MND. Arnold’s School Sh. [1894] W. F. Baugust. MND. 1894 Israel Gollancz. MND. Temple Shakespeare. 1894 Israel Gollancz. MND. Illus. by Robert Anning Bell. 1895 Katharine Lee Bates. MND. Boston. Students’ Series of English Classics. 1895 Homer B. Sprague. MND. Boston. 1896 George P. Baker. MND. Longman’s English Classics. 1896 L. W. Lyde. MND. Black’s School Sh. 1897 T. Page. MND. Moffatt’s Plays of Sh. 1897 Robert Scott. MND. College Classics of Sh. 1898 Charles H. Herford. Works. 10 vols. Eversley Ed. 1899–1904. Vol. 1. 1899 J. Lees. MND. 1902 Stanley Wood. MND. Oxford and Cambridge Edition. 1902 Charlotte Porter & Helen A. Clarke. Works. First Folio Ed. 40 vols. New York, 1903–12. Vol. 1. 1903 W. J. Craig. MND. Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. 40 vols. 1903–5. 1903 A. H. Bullen. Works. Stratford Town Ed. 10 vols. 1904–7. Vol. 1. 1905 A. F. Watt. MND. Tutorial Sh. 1906 C. W. Crooks. MND. 1906 E. T. B. Notes. Dramatic Works. 6 vols. [1906]. Vol. 1. [1906] Sidney Lee. Complete Works. Renaissance Ed. 40 vols. New York, 1907–9. Vol. 6. MND introd. by George Woodberry. 1907 F. J. Furnivall. MND. Old-Spelling Sh. New York. 1908 Ernest Clapp Noyes. MND. N.Y. Macmillan Pocket Classics. [1908] Gertrude Lawler. MND. Toronto. 1909 Henry N. Hudson. Rev. by Ebenezer C. Black. MND. New Hudson Sh. Boston. 1910 G. S. Gordon. MND, AYL, Tmp. Oxford. 1910 Brainerd Kellogg. MND. Merrill’s English Texts. New York. 1910 William Allen Neilson. MND. Lake English Classics. Chicago. 1910 W. J. Craig. The Comedies, Histories and Poems, Tragedies. 3 vols. OUP, 1911–12. Vol. 1. 1911 John W. Cunliffe. MND. Tudor Sh. 1912 A. W. Verity. MND. Pitt Press Sh. 2nd ed. Cambridge. 1912 J. H. Lobban. MND. Granta Sh. Cambridge. 1913 Tucker Brooke et al. Sh.’s Principal Plays. New York. 1914 Harley Granville-Barker. MND. An Acting Ed. 1914 F. J. Harvey Darton. MND. Bankside Acting Ed. [1914] Willard Higley Durham. MND. Yale Sh. 1918 Clarence Stratton. MND. Lippincott’s Classics. Philadelphia. 1920 George H. Cowling. MND. Methuen’s English Classics. 1922 H. B. Browne. MND. The Kings Treasuries of Literature. 1922 Harley Granville-Barker. MND. The Players’ Sh. 1924 Evelyn Smith. MND. Teaching of English Ser. 1925 Charles Whibley. Introd. Works. 3 vols. 1925. Vol. 1. 1925 Frederick D. Losey. Works. Philadelphia & Chicago. 1926 John William Cunliffe et al. Ten Plays of Sh. New York. 1927 C. B. Purdom. The Swan Shakespeare: a Player’s Edition. 3 vols. 1930. Vol. 1. 1930 Hardin Craig. Sh: A . . . Study with Annotated Texts of Twenty-one Plays. Chicago . . . & New York. 1931 Peter Bax. MND. French’s Acting Ed. New York. [1933] G. N. Giordano-Orsini. Introd. & notes. Text & tr. by Giulia Celenza. Sogno d’una Notte d’Estate. 1934 C. Aldred. MND. The Scholar’s Library. Introd. by Walter de la Mare. 1935 Max Reinhardt. Foreword. MND. New York. 1935 Thomas Marc Parrott et al. Twenty-three Plays and the Sonnets. New York. Rev. ed. 1953. 1938 F. C. Horwood. MND. New Clarendon Sh. Oxford. 1939 George Lyman Kittredge. MND. Boston. 1939 Thomas P. Robinson. MND. New York. 1941 Maurice Castelain. Le Songe d’une nuit d’été; MND. Paris. 1943 G[eorge] B. Harrison. Major Plays and the Sonnets. New York. 1948 Oscar James Campbell. The Living Shakespeare. New York. 1949 Hardin Craig. Complete Works. New York. 1951 Tyrone Guthrie. Introd. by. MND. New Stratford Sh. 1954 Ralph Richardson. Introd. by. MND. The Folio Soc. 1957 Louis B. Wright & Virginia A. LaMar. MND. Folger Library General Reader’s Sh. New York. 1958 J. W. Lever. MND. New Swan Sh. 1961 Wolfgang Clemen. MND. Signet Classic Sh. New York. 1963 J. H. Walter. MND. The Players’ Sh. 1964 Jean-Marie L’Hôte. Le songe d’une nuit d’été. Marseille. 1964 A. C. Ward. MND. The Heritage of Literature Ser. 1964 David G. Pitt & Lucy M. Fitzpatrick. MND. New York. 1965 Oscar James Campbell, Alfred Rothschild, & Stuart Vaughan. MND. New York. 1965 Oscar James Campbell, Alfred Rothschild, & Stuart Vaughan. MND. Commemoration Ed. New York. 1965 George Lyman Kittredge & Irving Ribner. MND. Waltham, Mass. 1966 A. A. Evans. MND. The London English Literature Ser. 1967 Allan Rodway. MND. New Warwick Sh. 1969 Ann Phillips. MND. South Bank Sh. 1969 Sidney Homan. MND. Blackfriars Sh. Dubuque, Iowa. 1970 M. M. Reese. MND. Nelson New Sh. 1970 Norman Sanders. MND. 1971 S. M. Farrow. MND. Alexander Sh. 1972 Sylvan Barnet. The Complete Signet Classic Sh. New York. 1972 David Bevington & Hardin Craig. Complete Works. Glenview, Ill. 1973 Bertrand Evans. The College Sh. New York. 1973 Peter Brook. Peter Brook’s Production of William Sh.’s Midsummer Night’s Dream: Authorized Acting Edition. Woodstock, Ill. 1974 Pierre Brunel. Introd. by F.-V. Hugo. Tr. Le songe d’une nuit d’été. Paris. 1974 David Bevington. Complete Works. Glenview, Ill. 1980 Roma Gill. MND. Oxford School Sh. Oxford. 1981 Dominic Hyland. MND. Longman Study Texts. Harlow, Essex. 1989 Patrick Tucker, & Michael Holden. Sh.’s Globe Acting Ed. 1990 Tony Tanner. Comedies. Everyman’s Library. New York. 1995 Thomas L. Berger. MND 1600. Malone Soc. Rpt. Vol. 157. Oxford. 1995 John Russell Brown et al. MND Applause Sh. Library. 1996 Trevor R. Griffiths. MND. Sh. in Production. Cambridge. 1996 Stephen Greenblatt. The Norton Sh. New York. 1997 Paul Bertram, Robert Atwan & Jon Roberts. MND. Quality Paperback Book Club. New York. 1997 Neil Freeman. MND. Applause First Folio Eds. New York. 1998 Anthony James West. Introd. by. A Midsommer nights dreame: a facsimile from the first folio. c. 2008

The Commentary quotes from and cites the following standard editions unless a different edition is specified.

The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont & Fletcher Canon. Gen. ed. Fredson Bowers. 10 vols. Cambridge, 1966–96. The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston, 1987. The Works of Michael Drayton. Ed. J. William Hebel, Kathleen Tillotson & Bernard H. Newdigate. 5 vols. Oxford, 1931–41. Corrected edition 1961. The Complete Works of George Gascoigne. Ed. John W. Cunliffe. 2 vols. 1907–10. The Life & Complete Works in Verse & Prose of Robert Greene, M.A. Ed. Alexander B. Grosart. 15 vols. 1881–6. (Rpt. New York: Russell & Russell, 1964.) Ben Jonson. Ed. C. H. Herford & Percy & Evelyn Simpson. 11 vols. 1925–52. The Works of Thomas Kyd. Ed. Frederick S. Boas. Oxford, 1901. The Complete Works of John Lyly. Ed. R. Warwick Bond. 3 vols. Oxford, 1902. The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe. Ed. Fredson Bowers. 2nd ed. 2 vols. CUP, 1981. (1st ed. 1973.) The Life & Works of George Peele. Gen. ed. Charles Tyler Prouty. 3 vols. New Haven, 1952–70.

List of abbreviations and terms

  • ad.
    added, additionally
  • adj.
    adjective; adjectival
  • ad loc.
    ad locum referring to this word, line, passage
  • Ado
    Much Ado about Nothing
  • adv.
    adverb
  • AEB
    Analytical and Enumerative Bibliography
  • AI
    American Imago
  • AJES
    The Aligarh Journal of English Studies
  • AJP
    The American Journal of Psychoanalysis
  • Am.
    Spenser, Amoretti
  • Anm.
    Anmerkung, note
  • Anon., anon.
    Anonymous
  • ANQ
    ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews
  • Ant.
    Antony and Cleopatra
  • app.
    appendix
  • apud
    according to
  • Archiv
    Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen
  • ARIELE
    ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature
  • Assn.
    Association
  • Aufl.
    Auflage, edition
  • AWW
    All’s Well that Ends Well
  • AYL
    As You Like It
  • b
    (superscript in a signature) right-hand column
  • BD
    Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess
  • BEPD
    W. W. Greg. Bibliography of the English Printed Drama (4 vols 1939–59)
  • BJA
    British Journal of Aesthetics
  • BJRL
    Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester
  • BL
    British Library
  • bull.
    bulletin
  • BuR
    Bucknell Review
  • c.
    century; circa
  • CahiersE
    Cahiers Elisabéthains
  • C&L
    Christianity and Literature
  • CE
    College English
  • CEA
    CEA Critic: An Official Journal of the College English Association
  • cf.
    compare
  • CHA
    Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos
  • ch(s).
    chapter(s)
  • CkT
    Chaucer, The Cook’s Tale
  • CL
    Comparative Literature
  • CLAJ
    College Language Association Journal
  • CLQu
    Colby Library Quarterly
  • CLS
    Comparative Literature Studies
  • ClT
    Chaucer, The Cleric’s Tale
  • CML
    Classical and Modern Literature
  • CompD
    Comparative Drama
  • conj.
    conjecture; conjunction
  • ContempR
    Contemporary Review
  • corr.
    corrected
  • Cor.
    Coriolanus
  • cp.
    compare
  • CQ
    Cambridge Quarterly
  • CritQ
    Critical Quarterly
  • CrSurv
    Critical Survey
  • CT
    Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
  • CUP
    Cambridge University Press
  • Cym.
    Cymbeline
  • dir.
    director, directed by
  • EA
    Études Anglaises
  • EAA
    Estudos Anglo-Americanos
  • EAN
    English Association Newsletter
  • E&S
    Essays and Studies
  • EAS
    Essays in Arts and Sciences
  • ed.
    edited by, edition, editor
  • eds.
    editions, editors
  • EETS
    Early English Text Society
  • EIC
    Essays in Criticism
  • ELH
    ELH: English Literary History
  • ELN
    English Language Notes
  • ELR
    English Literary Renaissance
  • EMEDD
    The Early Modern English Dictionaries Database [online], ed. Ian Lancashire, University of Toronto
  • EMLS
    Early Modern Literary Studies
  • Err.
    The Comedy of Errors
  • ES
    English Studies
  • ESC
    English Studies in Canada
  • esp.
    especially
  • ESTC
    English Short Title Catalogue
  • et al.
    and others
  • etc.
    (in a textual note) all other fully collated editions
  • ETh
    Elizabethan Theatre
  • ETJ
    Theatre Journal (Columbia, Mo.)
  • Expl
    Explicator
  • f.
    folio (leaf or page number)
  • F, F1
    First Folio (1623)
  • F2, F3, F4
    Second (1632), Third (1663–4), Fourth (1685) Folios
  • facs.
    facsimile
  • FCS
    Fifteenth-Century Studies
  • Ff
    Folios
  • fig.
    figurative(-ly)
  • fn(n).
    footnote(s)
  • FolioS
    Folio: Shakespeare-Genootschap van Nederland en Vlaanderen
  • FQ
    Faerie Queene
  • Fr.
    French
  • FR
    The French Review: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of French
  • FranT
    Chaucer, The Franklin’s Tale
  • Gent. Mag.
    Gentleman’s Magazine
  • Ger.
    German
  • Glos.
    Glossary
  • GP
    Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, General Prologue
  • 1H4
    1 Henry IV
  • 2H4
    2 Henry IV
  • H5
    Henry V
  • 1H6
    1 Henry VI
  • 2H6
    2 Henry VI
  • 3H6
    3 Henry VI
  • H8
    Henry VIII
  • Ham.
    Hamlet
  • HF
    Chaucer, The House of Fame
  • HLQ
    Huntington Library Quarterly
  • ibid.
    ibidem, in the same place
  • I{DEM}
    idem, the same person
  • i.e.
    id est, that is
  • introd.
    introduction
  • It.
    Italian
  • JC
    Julius Caesar
  • JDTC
    Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism
  • JEGP
    Journal of English and Germanic Philology
  • Jn.
    King John
  • JRMMRA
    Quidditas: Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association
  • JSL
    Journal of the School of Languages
  • KnT
    Chaucer, The Knight’s Tale
  • KPR
    Kentucky Philological Review
  • KR
    Kenyon Review
  • l(l).
    line(s)
  • L&P
    Literature and Psychology
  • LC
    A Lover’s Complaint
  • LCL
    Loeb Classical Libary
  • LCrit
    The Literary Criterion
  • LGW
    Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women
  • LLL
    Love’s Labour’s Lost
  • Lr.
    King Lear
  • Luc.
    The Rape of Lucrece
  • m
    (with a siglum) a manuscript source
  • Mac.
    Macbeth
  • MerT
    Chaucer, The Merchant’s Tale
  • Met.
    Metamorphoses
  • MichA
    Michigan Academician
  • MilPro
    Chaucer, The Miller’s Prologue
  • MilT
    Chaucer, The Miller’s Tale
  • MLA
    Modern Language Association
  • MLN
    MLN: formerly Modern Language Notes
  • MLQ
    Modern Language Quarterly
  • MLR
    Modern Language Review
  • MLS
    Modern Language Studies
  • MM
    Measure for Measure
  • MND
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • MP
    Modern Philology
  • MR
    Massachusetts Review
  • MRDE
    Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England
  • MS(S)
    manuscript(s)
  • MSR
    Malone Society Reprint
  • MV
    The Merchant of Venice
  • n(n).
    note(s); noun
  • N&Q
    Notes and Queries
  • NCD
    Room’s Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed. NTC’s Classical Dictionary, 1990
  • n.d.
    not dated
  • NLH
    New Literary History
  • n.p.
    place of publication not specified
  • n.s.
    new series
  • NTQ
    New Theatre Quarterly
  • obs.
    obsolete
  • OCD
    Oxford Classical Dictionary
  • ODEP
    Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs. 3rd. ed. OUP, 1970.
  • OED
    Oxford English Dictionary
  • om.
    omitted
  • orig.
    original(ly)
  • OSA
    Oxford Standard Authors
  • OSSt
    On-Stage Studies: An Annual Publication of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival
  • Oth.
    Othello
  • OUP
    Oxford University Press
  • PBA
    Proceedings of the British Academy
  • PBSA
    Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America
  • Per.
    Pericles
  • PF
    Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls
  • Phaed.
    Plato, Phaedrus
  • PhT
    The Phoenix and Turtle
  • PL
    Paradise Lost
  • PMLA
    Publications of the Modern Language Association of America
  • PoT
    Poetics Today
  • PP
    The Passionate Pilgrim
  • PQ
    Philological Quarterly
  • prep.
    preposition
  • pt(s).
    part(s)
  • pub.
    published
  • Q1
    First Quarto (1600)
  • Q2
    Second Quarto (1619)
  • Qd
    Quod
  • Qq
    Q1 and Q2
  • QQ
    Queen’s Quarterly
  • qtd.
    quoted
  • r
    (in a signature or folio, superscript) recto
  • R2
    Richard II
  • R3
    Richard III
  • R&L
    Religion and Literature
  • REALB
    REAL: The Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature
  • REL
    Review of English Literature
  • RenD
    Renaissance Drama
  • RenP
    Renaissance Papers
  • RenQ
    Renaissance Quarterly
  • RES
    Review of English Studies
  • ReT
    Chaucer, The Reeve’s Tale
  • Rev.
    Review
  • rev.
    revised
  • Rom.
    Romeo and Juliet
  • RORD
    Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama
  • rpt.
    reprint, reprinted
  • RSC
    Royal Shakespeare Company
  • RSH
    Revue des Sciences Humaines
  • SAQ
    South Atlantic Quarterly
  • SB
    Studies in Bibliography
  • sb.
    substantive (noun)
  • SCRev
    South Central Review
  • SD(s), SD(D)
    stage direction(s)
  • SEL
    Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900
  • ShAB
    Shakespeare Association Bulletin
  • ShakB
    Shakespeare Bulletin (New York Sh. Soc.)
  • ShakS
    Shakespeare Studies
  • Sh(n).
    Shakespeare(an) (any spelling)
  • ShE
    Shakespeare’s English
  • Shep. Cal.
    Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar
  • ShipT
    Chaucer, The Shipman’s Tale
  • ShN
    The Shakespeare Newsletter
  • Shr.
    The Taming of the Shrew
  • SHR
    Southern Humanities Review
  • ShS
    Shakespeare Survey
  • ShSA
    Shakespeare in Southern Africa
  • ShStud
    Shakespeare Studies (Tokyo)
  • ShY
    Shakespeare Yearbook
  • sig(s).
    signature(s)
  • SIR
    Studies in Romanticism
  • SJ
    Shakespeare-Jahrbuch
  • SJH
    Shakespeare-Jahrbuch (Heidelberg)
  • SJW
    Shakespeare-Jahrbuch (Weimar)
  • SN
    Studia Neophilologica
  • Soc.
    Society
  • Son.
    The Sonnets
  • SP
    Studies in Philology
  • SP(s)
    speech prefix(es)
  • SPWVSRA
    Selected Papers of the Shakespeare and Renaissance Association of West Virginia
  • SQ
    Shakespeare Quarterly
  • SqT
    Chaucer, The Squire’s Tale
  • SR
    Sewanee Review
  • STC
    Short Title Catalogue (by A. W. Pollard & G. R. Redgrave; 2nd ed., rev. & enl. W. A. Jackson, F. S. Ferguson, & K. F. Pantzer. 3 vols. 1986–91)
  • StHum
    Studies in the Humanities
  • Stud.
    Studies
  • Studies
    Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review (Dublin)
  • subst.
    substantially, substantive
  • s.v.
    sub verba or sub voce, under the words
  • TDRev
    TDR: The Drama Review
  • TGV
    Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • ThS
    Theatre Survey
  • Thop.
    Chaucer, Tale of Sir Thopas
  • Tim.
    Timon of Athens
  • Tit.
    Titus Andronicus
  • TLN
    Through Line Number
  • TLS
    Times Literary Supplement (London)
  • Tmp.
    The Tempest
  • TN
    Twelfth Night
  • TNK
    The Two Noble Kinsmen
  • tr.
    translated by, translation, translator
  • Tr.
    Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde
  • Trans.
    Transactions
  • Tro.
    Troilus and Cressida
  • TSLL
    Texas Studies in Literature and Language
  • UCrow
    The Upstart Crow
  • UMSE
    University of Mississippi Studies in English
  • Univ.
    University
  • UTQ
    University of Toronto Quarterly
  • v
    (in a signature or folio, superscript) verso
  • v.
    verb; verse; vide, see
  • Var.
    Variorum
  • Ven.
    Venus and Adonis
  • vb.
    verb
  • VN
    Victorian Newsletter
  • vol(s).
    volume(s)
  • WBT
    Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale
  • Wiv.
    The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • WS
    Women’s Studies
  • WT
    The Winter’s Tale
  • wt
    what or with
  • wth
    with
  • YES
    Yearbook of English Studies
  • ye
    the
  • yr
    your
  • YR
    Yale Review
  • yt
    that
  • yu
    you

Symbols used in the textual apparatus include:

  • punctuation absent
  •  ~ 
    corresponding word(s) of the lemma repeated
  • -
    (between two sigla) all collated editions between and including those indicated by the two sigla
  • +
    all succeeding collated editions
  • (− )
    all sigla following the minus sign within parentheses indicate editions that agree with the Variorum text (i.e., with Q1)