Since Shakespeare is not only our greatest author but one of our oldest and most distinguished institutions, he provides vast employment and opportunity for scholars, editors, publishers, and booksellers. Men have become rich simply by making popular and totally uninspired editions of the complete works. There are over four hundred titles in print covering at least a thousand separate volumes which list Shakespeare as their author, and these quite obviously would not be there if a goodly number of them were not making money. The variety of format, cost, and scholarly care evinced in this welter of books is also very great, ranging from the almost unbelievably ponderous Variorum which, incomplete though it is, costs well over three hundred dollars, to the simple actor's and student's versions of single plays that sell for thirty-five cents. On the surface, this is exactly as it should be. It well befits a great institution that it be conceived of in a large variety of ways and be used for many purposes. Yet the more one examines these four hundred titles the more inescapable is the conclusion that very few people buying Shakespeare in 1964 in one of his many forms are getting what they seek and want. Most of this number are simply imitations of about three simple and, usually, inadequate ideas of what kinds of Shakespeares we should have. Shakespeare's one peer in the competitive market is the Bible, and one can buy Bibles tailored to fit almost every conceivable need, budget, and creed. A good religious bookstore is absolutely staggering in its display of different translations, different papers, bindings, and prices, different amounts of the Bible. But the average good bookstore has some tired one-volume Shakespeares based on a text exactly one hundred years old this year and a handful of paperbacks of maybe half a dozen of the most popular plays.
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Nov 1, 1997
Albert Prior 
Open Access
