Arden Shakespeare

The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been three distinct series of the Arden Shakespeare over the past century, and the third series has not yet been completed. Arden was the maiden name of Shakespeare's mother, Mary, but the primary reference of the enterprise's title is named after the Forest of Arden, in which Shakespeare's As You Like It is set.^[1]

First Series

The first series was published by Methuen. Its first publication was Edward Dowden's edition of Hamlet, published in 1899.^[2] Over the next 25 years, the entire canon of Shakespeare was edited and published. The original editor of the Arden Shakespeare was William James Craig (1899–1906), succeeded by R. H. Case (1909–1944).^[3] The text of the Arden Shakespeare, First series, was based on the 1864 "Globe" or Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works, edited by William George Clark and John Glover,^[4] as revised in 1891–93.^[5]

The list of the first series is as follows:^[6]

Second Series

The second series began in 1946, with a new group of editors freshly re-editing the plays, and was completed in the 1980s. It was published by Methuen in both hardback and paperback. Later issues of the paperbacks featured cover art by the Brotherhood of Ruralists. The Second Series was edited by Una Ellis-Fermor (1946–58); Harold F. Brooks (1952–82), Harold Jenkins (1958–82) and Brian Morris (1975–82).^[7] Unlike the First Series, where each volume was based on the same textual source (The Globe Shakespeare), the individual editors of each volume of the Second Series were responsible for editing the text of the play in that edition.^[8]

Third Series

The third series of the Arden Shakespeare began to be edited during the 1980s, with publication starting in the 1990s.

The first editions in this series were published by Routledge, before moving to Thomson. They then moved to Cengage Learning. In December 2008, the series returned to Methuen, becoming part of Methuen Drama, its original publisher. From February 2013, the titles have appeared under the Bloomsbury imprint.^[9]

The editions in the third series are published very much in line with the traditions established by the Arden Shakespeare; however, editions in this series tend to be much thicker than those of the first and second series, with more explanatory notes and much longer introductions. One unusual aspect of this series is its edition of Hamlet, which presents the play in two separate volumes. The first, released in 2006, contains an edited text of the Second Quarto (1604–05), with passages found only in the First Folio included in an appendix,^[10] while the supplementary second volume, released a year later, contains both the text of the First Quarto (sometimes called the "bad" quarto) of 1603, and of the First Folio of (1623).^[11]

The general editors for this series are Richard Proudfoot; Ann Thompson of King's College London; David Scott Kastan of Yale University; and H. R. Woudhuysen of the University of Oxford.

As of May 2017, editions of three canonical plays remain uncompleted: All's Well That Ends Well, edited by Helen Wilcox; King John, edited by John Tobin and Jesse Lander; and Measure for Measure, edited by A. R. Braunmuller.

Editions

What follows is a list of editions published in the third series thus far, or which have been announced for publication by mid-2017.

Apocrypha

The third series is also notable to publishing single-volume editions of certain plays which traditionally form part of the so-called Shakespeare Apocrypha, but for which there is considered good evidence of Shakespeare having at least been part author. Two apocryphal plays have so far been published in this manner, with a third announced for release in 2017.

• Double Falsehood, edited by Brean Hammond (2010)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• Sir Thomas More, edited by John Jowett (2011)^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• King Edward III, edited by Richard Proudfoot and Nicola Bennett (2017) ^[12]

Revised editions

Due to the long period of time over which the series has been published, many of the editions listed above have been (or are planned to be) re-issued in revised editions, The first – Shakespeare's Sonnets – was published in 2010, fifteen years after the series began. Thus far, seven editions have been reissued in revised form with an eighth announced for 2018.

• Shakespeare's Sonnets (2010)
• The Tempest (2011)
• The Two Noble Kinsmen (2015)
• Troilus and Cressida (2015)
• Much Ado About Nothing (2016)
• Othello (2016)^{[lower-alpha 3]}
• Hamlet (2016)
• Titus Andronicus (January 2018) ^[13]

Fourth Series

In March 2015, Bloomsbury Academic named Peter Holland of the University of Notre Dame, Zachary Lesser of the University of Pennsylvania, and Tiffany Stern of the University of Oxford as general editors of the Arden Shakespeare Fourth Series.^[14]

Arden Early Modern Drama

In 2009, the Arden Shakespeare launched a companion series, entitled "Arden Early Modern Drama". The series follows the formatting and scholarly style of the Arden Shakespeare Third Series, but shifts the focus onto less well-known English Renaissance playwrights, primarily the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods (although the plays Everyman and Mankind hail from the reign of King Henry VII).

The general editors for this series are Suzanne Gossett of Loyola University Chicago; John Jowett of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham; and Gordon McMullan of King's College London.

• The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, edited by Leah Marcus (2009)
• Everyman and Mankind, edited by Douglas Bruster and Eric Rasmussen (2009)
• Philaster by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, edited by Suzanne Gossett (2009)
• The Renegado by Philip Massinger, edited by Michael Neill (2010)
• 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford, edited by Sonia Massai (2011)
• The Tragedy of Mariam by Elizabeth Cary, edited by Ramona Wray (2012)
• The Island Princess by John Fletcher, edited by Clare McManus (2013)
• The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd, edited by Clara Calvo and Jesús Tronch (2013)
• A Jovial Crew by Richard Brome, edited by Tiffany Stern (2014)
• The Witch of Edmonton by Thomas Dekker, John Ford and William Rowley, edited by Lucy Munro (2016).
• A Woman Killed with Kindness by Thomas Heywood, edited by Margaret Kidnie (2017).

Complete Works

Arden has also published a Complete Works of Shakespeare, which reprints editions from the second and third series.

Critical Literature

The Arden Shakespeare has also published a number of series of literary and historical criticism to accompany the Arden Shakespeare Third Series and Arden Early Modern Drama imprints.

Notes

References

External links

William Shakespeare
Plays	Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre* The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen* The Winter's Tale Histories King John Edward III* Richard II Henry IV 1 2 Henry V Henry VI* 1 2 3 Richard III Henry VIII* See also Problem plays Late romances Characters A–K L–Z Chronology Performances Settings Quarto publications First Folio Second Folio
Poems	Shakespeare's sonnets comparison to Petrarch Venus and Adonis The Rape of Lucrece The Phoenix and the Turtle A Lover's Complaint
Apocrypha	Arden of Faversham* Cardenio* Double Falsehood* Love's Labour's Won Sejanus His Fall* Sir Thomas More* The Spanish Tragedy* The Passionate Pilgrim*
Life and works	Birthplace and childhood home Bibliography Complete Works of William Shakespeare Translations Early editions Editors English Renaissance theatre Globe Theatre Handwriting Lord Chamberlain's Men/King's Men The Theatre Curtain Theatre New Place Portraits Religious views Sexuality Spelling of his name Stratford-upon-Avon Style
Legacy	Attribution studies Authorship question Influence Memorials Screen adaptations Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Folger Shakespeare Library Shakespeare Quarterly Shakespeare's Globe (replica) Bardolatry Titles of works taken from Shakespeare
Family	Anne Hathaway (wife) Susanna Hall (daughter) Hamnet Shakespeare (son) Judith Quiney (daughter) Elizabeth Barnard (granddaughter) John Shakespeare (father) Mary Arden (mother) Gilbert Shakespeare (brother) Joan Shakespeare (sister) Edmund Shakespeare (brother) Richard Shakespeare (grandfather) John Hall (son-in-law) Thomas Quiney (son-in-law) Thomas Nash (grandson-in-law)
* Shakespeare and other authors Lost