Note 13 — INTRODUCTION

Eight early plays of Shakespeare’s were actually revived during the Globe period, or supposedly revived according to the title pages of early editions. These plays were The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, and Titus Andronicus. Seven of the eight, all but the first, were printed in quartos. However, the texts of later editions were set up from the early editions without appreciable alterations. The Folio text of Dream does include some additions to the stage directions which may be illuminating but which do not change the theatrical elements. The Fourth Quarto (1608) of Richard II is the first edition to contain the abdication scene, and the Folio text of Titus Andronicus contains additional stage directions and a new scene. But these omissions in the early copies do not seem to be a result of staging conditions. There are two possible inferences. Either the later texts had no connection with the playhouse and therefore merely copied the earlier texts, or the productions did not change sufficiently over the years to cause variations in the texts. As a result I have decided to use these plays for occasional reference only.