Textual Note

Abstract

Extract Where I have been able to access a modern scholarly edition of a text, I have cited that version in preference to the earliest printed text except in instances when it is necessary to also refer to early modern publications: for instance, in order to analyse early printed stage directions. In quoting from early modern manuscripts and printed books, I have retained the original spelling and punctuation, but unless otherwise specified I have modernized u/v and i/j variants and changed proper nouns originally printed in italics to roman type. I have also retained the original spellings and punctuation for early modern titles in footnote references when citing them for the first time, as well as the vv/w typographical variants that can complicate database searches. For ease of reading these titles have however been modernized within the main body of the text; I have also typically abbreviated the titles of plays and other published works following their first mention within individual chapters. All works in languages other English have been quoted in translation, with the details of those translations provided in the footnotes. Unless otherwise specified, any scriptural references relate to the 1611 King James Bible, as edited by Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).