humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

Lyra wrote:


(quote, excerpts)

LONDON, Mar. 26, 2008 (Reuters) --

"There are no surviving manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays in his
handwriting so the quartos are the closest we can get to what
Shakespeare really wanted," said Bodleian spokeswoman Oana Romocea.

"Some quartos do, however, have his annotations around the printed
text."

The project is designed to make all of the earliest printed versions
of Shakespeare's plays, many of which are only accessible to scholars,
available to the wider public.

The process of downloading the quartos will begin next month and take
a year to complete. Online visitors will be able to compare images
side-by-side, search the plays and mark and tag the texts.

"We (at the Bodleian) have about 55 copies, although some of them are
duplicates," said Romocea.

"Each quarto is different, so it's very interesting from a research
perspective to compare the quartos.

"For example, some of the famous lines in 'Hamlet' exist in one quarto
and in another they don't, or they are very different."

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more
between about 1590 and 1613. He died in 1616.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/l26582770-britain-shakespeare-digital/


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> (quote)
>
> The Bodleian, which has 55 Shakespeare Quartos, has agreed to work
> with the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, to create the
> Shakespeare Quartos Archive, a freely-accessible digital collection.
>
> (quote)
>
> Bodleian's Shakespeare Quartos to go online
>
> Comment
>
> Oxford University's Bodleian Library has linked up with its American
> counterparts to create an online archive of Shakespeare's earliest
> printed editions - known as 'Quartos'.
>
> The Bodleian, which has 55 Shakespeare Quartos, has agreed to work
> with the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, to create the
> Shakespeare Quartos Archive, a freely-accessible digital collection.
>
> The initiative is one of five transatlantic collaborations between
> British and US institutions.
>
> Richard Ovenden, keeper of special collections at the Bodleian, said:
> "Working with the Folger Shakespeare Library, and our other partners,
> will create a significant online resource for scholars, at all
> levels."
>
> The one-year project begins next month, and will reunite all 75
> pre-1641 Quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays into a single online
> collection.
>
> The project's website will feature high-resolution reproductions and
> full-text of surviving Shakespeare Quartos and it should be available
> in about three months.
>
> In the absence of surviving manuscripts, the Quartos offer the closest
> known evidence of what Shakespeare might actually have written, and
> what appeared on the early modern English stage.
>
> 3:53pm Monday 31st March 2008
>
> http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.2159708.0.bodleians_shakespeare_quartos_to_go_online.php