The plays in the series known as the Revels plays include well-known works from the early Tudor period to about 1700, as well as others less familiar but of literary and theatrical merit. The text of each Revels play, in accordance with established practice in the series, is edited afresh from the original text of best authority but spelling and punctuation are modernized and speech headings are silently made consistent. Elisions in the original are also silently regularized, except where metre would be affected by the ...
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The plays in the series known as the Revels plays include well-known works from the early Tudor period to about 1700, as well as others less familiar but of literary and theatrical merit. The text of each Revels play, in accordance with established practice in the series, is edited afresh from the original text of best authority but spelling and punctuation are modernized and speech headings are silently made consistent. Elisions in the original are also silently regularized, except where metre would be affected by the change. The editor emends, as distinct from modernizes, his original only in instances where error is patent, or at least very probable, and correction persuasive. Act divisions are given only if they appear in the original or if the structure of the play clearly points to them. Those act and scene divisions not found in the original are provided unobtrusively in small type and in square brackets. Square brackets are also used for any other additions to or changes in the stage directions of the original. Revels Plays do not provide a variorum collation, but only those variants which require the critical attention of serious textual students. All departures of substance from "copy-text" are listed, including any relineation and those changes in punctuation which involve to any degree a decision between alternative interpretations. Press corrections in the "copy-text" are likewise included. Of later emendations of the text, only those are given which as alternative readings still deserve attention. Besides explaining the meaning of difficult words and passages, the editor provides comments on customs or usage, text or stage-business. Each volume contains a glossarial index to the commentary, in which particular attention is drawn to meanings for words not listed in OED.
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