BIBLIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN OLD EDITIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDIES

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1.A Microfilm Collection of Original Texts. A small number of libraries have failed to supply microfilms of Shakespeare's quartos because of thelack of facilities or the too fragile physical condition of their copy/copies. Despite this shortcoming, the microfilm collection grown rapidly over a period of two years may not see, in terms of quantity as well as quality, no comparable one anywhere else.2.Textual Analysis and Criticism. No conclusions sound enough to be published have been obtained yet. However, The Merry Wives of Windsor has got an opportunity to be dealt with in my recent book on Thomas Creede : Printer to Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (Meisei University Press, 1994). Whose Appendix B proposes the theoretical number of substantive printing errors in the quartos of Shakespeare's plays, thus commenting on the way in which one should approach the textual problems of the play.3.A Collection of Marginalia in Old Editions of Shakespeare. Collecting marginalia is the other of the two principal objectives of the present project. One of the twelve copies of the First Folio of Shakespeare in the Kodama Memorial Library of Meisei University, that is MR 774, cotains contemporary annotations in the margin throughout the volume. They reflect how the dramatist's works were read and interpreted by his contemporary reader-a good piece of evidence of the rise of readers as a group of people enjoying Shakespeare in their studies, that is an utterly different type of people from conventional theater-goers. Considering the siginificant importance of the finding, I have decided prepare an interim report on the marginalia, with special reference to The Tempest. The accompanying thin publication is a part of the results of his observations.