Shakespearean Suspect Texts: The 'Bad' Quartos and their Contexts

by Laurie Maguire

There are forty-one problematic play texts, variously classified as "bad quartos" or "memorial reconstructions," from Shakespeare's time. Textual criticism of these quartos has been fraught with assumption and contradiction. Maguire examines all the texts in detail. She deconstructs the theories of W.W. Greg and his followers, scrutinizing the methods by which critics diagnose texts as "bad," and examines the historical evidence for the concept of memorial reconstruction (compilation from the recollection of actors or spectators). The valuable contextual material includes fresh analysis of the New Bibliographers, the rise of English studies, Renaissance oral culture, and textual problems in nonsuspect texts. The assembly of textual information about all the suspect texts in tabular form makes the book an essential reference work.

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure if I should give this book three stars or five, but four somehow does not seem right. It is one of the seminal texts from the nineties, paradigm changing in the way that Shakespeareans think about and do textual studies. Maguire's great contribution is to trash the old ways we think about how Shakespeare's quartos came to be, such as memorial reconstruction. That is first half of the book. The second half attempts to explain just what the quartos are, but that is not nearly as persuasive as the first part of her book. Maguire rates five stars for part one, maybe one or two for part two. A five star impact on Shakespeare studies must be acknowledged, but the failure to find a convincing theory in part two must be acknowledged as well.