Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare

Paul Werstine has spent his career teaching Shakespeare and Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at King's University College and in the Graduate Program of the University of Western Ontario. Among his teaching awards are the King's College Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2003 and awards from the graduating classes of 2003, 2007 and 2009. From 1981–9 he served as Associate Editor, with Editor Leeds Barroll, of Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. He is co-editor, with Barbara A. Mowat, of the Folger Shakespeare Library edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems. He is also co-general editor, with Richard Knowles, of the Modern Language Association's New Variorum Shakespeare edition and particularly of The Winter's Tale (2005) and The Comedy of Errors (2011). He has written many articles about the early printings of Shakespeare, about the Shakespeare editorial tradition and about early modern dramatic manuscripts. In 2010 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Introduction: reading W. W. Greg; 1. The discovery of 'foul papers'; 2. Redefining foul papers; 3. Playhouse MSS: what bookkeepers did not do; 4. Playhouse MSS: what bookkeepers did; 5. Behind the stage/in the tiring house; Conclusion; The manuscripts; Appendix A. Characteristics of Gregian 'foul papers' in playhouse texts; Appendix B. Knight's placement of stage directions in Beleeue; Appendix C. Physical evidence of dramatist-bookkeeper collaboration.