Shakespeare's Deletions and False Starts

Abstract

Shakespeare's editors have long been aware that his ‘false starts’ were sometimes printed accidentally in his early texts. The author argues that there are so many ‘false starts’ in so many texts that they point to one conclusion—that Shakespeare did not delete them clearly, or perhaps did not delete them at all. If Shakespeare intended to tidy these passages in his fair copy, his habit of not deleting intended cancellations has important implications for other passages where the evidence is more uncertain.