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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
Just found your reply to my early March posting re: Shakespearean acting techniques and use of punctuation.(For those who missed it):
"The First Folio's Punctuation is not Shakespeare's----and neither are the Quarto,s. The puctuation in all the earliest printed editions of Shakespeare's plays has no authority whatsoever. The punctuation is that of the
typographers, each of whom had his own cranks and whims when it came to pointing. Of the four identified compositors who type-set the First Folio, one was addicted to
parentheses; another went heavy on the commas, etc. etc. These men were not Shakespeare; they weren't even men of the theatre. There is absolutely no reason why any
modern actor should study, let alone follow, the caprices of a 17th-century typesetter. The only surviving manuscript in Shakespeare's hand--the Thomas More fragment--is
virtually unpunctuated; so that, on the evidence, we must assume that Shakespeare pointed hardly at all.Posted by charles weinstein on March 17, 1997 at 15:19:58"
This is news to me. What are your sources; I would be interested to read them.
Thanks.
Posted by Samuell Crosse on March 31, 1997 at 00:20:20
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help