Second Quarto (1604)

Second Quarto (1604)

The Second Quarto (1604) is a notable early printed edition of a prominent Elizabethan play, issued amid the publishing milieu of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Richard Burbage, and London playhouses such as the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars Theatre. The volume circulated in the same print culture that produced quartos and folios for works linked to Thomas Kyd, Philip Henslowe, Edward Alleyn, Robert Greene, and other dramatists and impresarios engaged with the Master of Revels, the Stationers' Company, and the book trade around the reign of James I. The 1604 imprint has been central to textual studies, bibliography, theatrical reconstruction, and editorial practice in scholarship connected to the First Folio, Oxford Shakespeare, and major modern editions.

Background and Publication History

The 1604 imprint emerged during a period of intense activity among printers, booksellers, and theatre patentees including John Heminges, Henry Condell, Nicholas Ling, William Jaggard, and Edward Blount. The quarto's production intersects with the licensing procedures of the Master of the Revels and the economic networks of the Stationers' Company, where figures such as Richard Field, Peter Short, Thomas Creede, and John Wright negotiated copy rights and sheets. Contemporary events—like the accession of James I and court entertainments by Anne of Denmark and Prince Charles—shaped demand for dramatic texts; patrons such as Earl of Southampton and institutions like St Paul's Cathedral influenced readership and performance circuits. The physical book reflects early modern practices of compositor work, typecasting, and quartos produced for actors, booksellers, and collectors including Humphrey Moseley.

Textual Characteristics and Differences from Other Quartos

The 1604 issue is characterized by orthographic variants, stage directions, and speech prefixes that differ from the First Folio and preceding quartos associated with printers like James Roberts and John Danter. Its lineation, punctuation, and substantive readings often contrast with copies printed by Nicholas Okes or issued in other states; variants include alterations in character names used by Richard Burbage's company, metrical adjustments affecting iambic pentameter, and additions or omissions of passages known from other witnesses. Comparative bibliographic work employs the methodologies of Edmond Malone, A. W. Pollard, G. B. Harrison, and modern editors from the Roxburghe Club and the Royal Shakespeare Company textual projects to collate quartos against the First Folio and manuscript fragments. The 1604 text provides crucial evidence for reconstructing performance practice at venues such as the Rose Theatre, Swan Theatre, and civic pageants managed by Guilds.

Authorship, Sources, and Editorial Practices

Questions of attribution in the 1604 edition engage with authorship debates involving William Shakespeare, collaborators like John Fletcher, and rivals such as Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker. Editors have traced source relations to chronicles of Raphael Holinshed, translations by Sir Thomas North, continental models including Ovid and Plutarch, and legal or historical records compiled by Holinshed and John Stow. The printing shows signs of actor-corrected copies, memorial reconstruction associated with performers like William Shakespeare's company and scribal interventions reminiscent of playhouse promptbooks kept by prompters such as Edward Knight. Editorial interventions by later figures—Nicholas Rowe, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, and nineteenth-century printers tied to the Cambridge University Press and the Oxford University Press—shaped modern editions, while textual theory from G. E. Lessing to W. W. Greg and D. F. McKenzie influenced apparatus construction.

Reception, Performance, and Influence

The 1604 edition entered a reception history intertwined with performances staged for monarchs and elites including Queen Elizabeth I's court entertainments and James I's masques by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. Actors and companies such as the Lord Chamberlain's Men, King's Men, and touring troupes exported the play to provincial venues like Covent Garden and civic theaters in Bath and York. The printed quarto affected dramatic pedagogy at institutions like Eton College and influenced later dramatists including John Webster, Philip Massinger, and Francis Beaumont. Adaptations and borrowings appear in Restoration theatre under figures like Thomas Betterton and in 18th-century reworkings by David Garrick and Colley Cibber. The edition also shaped literary reception among collectors such as Joseph Ames and impacted bibliographic assemblages at repositories like the British Library and the Bodleian Library.

Critical Editions and Scholarly Debate

Scholarly engagement with the 1604 imprint has produced critical editions from the Cambridge University Press series, the Arden Shakespeare volumes, the Oxford Shakespeare project, and variorum editions that marshal witnesses from quartos, folios, and promptbooks. Key debates pivot on authorial intention, memorial reconstruction, printer corrections, and the valuation of variant readings championed by editors like Harold Jenkins, E. A. J. Honigmann, Stanley Wells, and Gary Taylor. Bibliographers employ tools from textual criticism advanced by Fredson Bowers and digital archives curated by institutions such as the Folger Shakespeare Library and the National Library of Scotland. Ongoing research uses computational collation, codicology, and performance studies linked to festivals like Stratford-upon-Avon to reassess the 1604 quarto's place in the canon and its implications for editorial method.

Category:Early modern English literature