Note 604 — BOOK V PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

Pollard, Sh. F. 48; F. and Q. 64. More recently A. W. Pollard and J. D. Wilson have developed a theory (T. L. S. Jan.–Aug. 1919) that the ‘bad quartos’ rest upon pre-Shakespearian texts partly revised by Shakespeare, of which shortened transcripts had been made for a travelling company in 1593, and which had been roughly adapted by an actor-reporter so as to bring them into line with the later Shakespearian texts current at the time of publication. Full discussion of this theory belongs to a study of Shakespeare. The detailed application of it in J. D. Wilson, The Copy for Hamlet 1603 and the Hamlet Transcript 1593 (1918), does not convince me that Shakespeare had touched the play in 1593, although I think that the reporter was in a position to make some slight use of a pre-Shakespearian Hamlet. And although travelling companies were doubtless smaller than the largest London companies (cf. chh. xi and xiii, s.v. Pembroke’s), there is no external evidence that special ‘books’ were prepared for travelling. For another criticism of the theory, cf. W. J. Lawrence in T. L. S. for 21 Aug. 1919. Causes other than travelling might explain the shortening of play texts: prolixity, even in an experienced dramatist (cf. t.p. of Duchess of Malfi), the approach of winter afternoons, an increased popular demand for jigs.