The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero. (See The Tempest, 1.2: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text. There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote.
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Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.
Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own. It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library
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