Editors Construct the Renaissance Canon, 1825-1915 (Early Modern Literature in History)

Annotation This book argues that nineteenth-century editors created the modern idea of English Renaissance literature. The book analyses the theories and practices of editors who worked on Shakespeare, but also on complete editions of a remarkable range of early modern writers, from the early nineteenth century through to the early twentieth century. It reassesses the point at which purportedly more scientific theories of editing began the process of obscuring the work of these earlier editors. In recreating this largely ignored history, this book also addresses the current interest in the theory and practice of editing as it relates to new approaches to early modern writing, and to literary and book history, and the material conditions of the transmission of texts. Through a series of case studies, the book explores the way individual editors dealt with Renaissance literature and with changing ideas of how texts and their contexts might be represented Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 List of Figures 9 Chapter 1: Introduction: Redeeming the Editorial Tradition 10 1 Redeeming 10 2 Canonising 12 3 Recovering 14 Chapter 2: Alexander Dyce 16 1 Starting Out with Women Under the Microscope: Specimens of British Poetesses 17 2 From the Eighteenth Century to the Recovery of Renaissance Drama 33 3 Expanding the Canon 40 4 Consolidating the Canon: Middleton, Beaumont and Fletcher, Marlowe 44 Chapter 3: Constructing a Perfected Shakespeare Text 51 1 James Orchard Halliwell: Editor as Entrepeneur 51 2 Henrietta’s Version: The Halliwells Edit Mary Wroth’s Love’s Victory 55 3 Editing Shakespeare in the Mid-nineteenth Century 60 4 Halliwell’s Shakespeare: Monument and Scrapbook 67 5 Hoarding: Halliwell’s Biography of Shakespeare and its Supplements. 86 Chapter 4: Amateurs, Professionals, and the Second Half of the Century 90 1 Alexander Grosart: Tidal Wave 90 2 Editors of the Pre-Renaissance 100 3 The Institutionalisation of Shakespeare Editing 106 4 A.H. Bullen and the Commercial Imperative 114 Chapter 5: Scientific Professionals and Learned Amateurs 120 1 McKerrow’s Nashe 120 2 Greg’s Henslowe 127 3 McKerrow, Greg, and the New Bibliography Dominance 129 4 Montague Summers: Modernism Not Modernity 130 Chapter 6: Conclusion: Forgetting the Past 140 Appendix 1: Specimens of British Poetesses List of Authors 151 Appendix 2: Volumes in Dyce’s Library Related to Specimens of British Poetesses 152 Eighteenth Century 152 Contemporary 153 Bibliography 154 Manuscripts 154 Primary Sources 155 Secondary Sources 159 Index 166 Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction: Redeeming the Editorial Tradition (Paul Salzman)....Pages 1-6 Alexander Dyce (Paul Salzman)....Pages 7-41 Constructing a Perfected Shakespeare Text (Paul Salzman)....Pages 43-81 Amateurs, Professionals, and the Second Half of the Century (Paul Salzman)....Pages 83-112 Scientific Professionals and Learned Amateurs (Paul Salzman)....Pages 113-132 Conclusion: Forgetting the Past (Paul Salzman)....Pages 133-143 Back Matter ....Pages 145-167