Thursday, December 08, 2005
The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) welcomes questions about literary mysteries and scandals, which should be sent to: woodyswoody@hotmail.com. The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) is published by Jonathanames.com. Ames, our mentor at this website, has an excellent new book out called, Wake Up, Sir! and an even newer book out (he is the editor) called Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. _____________________________________________________________________
A Hamlet Mystery
Regular readers may remember I was recently in London as part of my on-going work on Milton. Pouring over papers in dusty London libraires I learned much about the great writer, and also in the Uk's capital I uncovered a mystery concerning William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
In my copy of the Oxford Edition of that drama we find on page78 Figures 13 and 14, which purport to be facsimile copies of the first page of the Q1 version of Hamlet (the so-called 'Bad Quarto' of 1603) and the first page of the Q2 version (1604). But do we?
Figure 13 (which is said to be Q1) begins with the stage direction, 'Enter Bernardo, and Francisco, two Centinels.' Figure 14 (Q2) begins, 'Enter two Centinels'. But a reading of Stanely Wells's excellent introduction to the play leads one to believe these pages have been reversed, that Q2, the fuller, more acurate version of Shakespeare's play begins not with the entrance of nameless Centinels, but with, 'Enter Bernardo, and Francisco, two Centinels.'
My heart beat at the discovery, and deciding how to act made it beat the harder, as I contemplated contacting Wells, the great scholar himself. The author of numerous books on Shakespeare and General Editor of the Oxford Edition series of Shakespeare's plays, Wells is one of earth's leading Shakespeare authorities, (indeed, at http://www.sirbacon.org/wells.htm (where you can find an an excellent photo of Wells) Vanderbilt Professor Ann Cook is quoted as saying, "Stanley Wells is arguably the single most powerful authority on Shakespeare in the world, literally").
So I could not pester Wells lightly, but in the end this way seemed best, and I wrote him a letter sharing my observation. This is his reply:
Dear Mr. Wood,
Thank you for your letter, which I have just recieved. I've checked both the hardback and the paperback editions, both of which seem to me to be correct. As you say, on p.77 Q1 is said to open with Enter two Centinels. This is how the lefthand illustration on p.78 starts. I have before me a facimile of Q1 which shows that fig. 13 is correctly identified.
Best Wishes,
Yours,
Stanely Wells
I was not mortified to read this, but felt silly, and I read it in a library, so rushed to the Shakespeare section and found the Oxford Edition, and the things said by Professor Wells were as he said them in the library's copy. But then, referencing my own book, I found it did not jibe with what I saw in the library, or what Wells wrote to me, so I suspected and communicated back to Wells my theory that a mistake had been made only in the edition of The Oxford Edition I got.
After some hoopla, and more mailing (I mailed him a copy of the relevant pages from my book) I got this gratifying email:
Thanks for your letter. There is certainly a mystery here, and I'm greatful to you for drawing my attention to it. I've spoken to the editor of the World's Classics Series, who is looking into it. I'll report when I hear from her!
Best wishes,
Stanely
The solution to the mystery was soon provided by Oxford World's Classics Commisioning Editor, who wrote me,
"It appears that the two illustrations were flipped when we rescanned them in an attempt to improve the quality of the reproduction. We will correct the mistake at the earliest opportunity, and I will be happy to send you a replacement copy [...] Thank you for alerting us to the error."
A few last words: It was satisfying to be vindicated in this Hamlet mystery, after Professor Wells's initial email, and I was glad that by the end of our correspondence he was siging off as 'Stanely' (rather than with his full name, 'Stanely Wells'). Sadly I still haven't recieved a replacement for my error-containing Hamlet...but maybe that will come soon!
A final word: As I was writing to Wells I was stuyding Hamlet under the guidance of one of the General Editors of the Arden series of Shakespeare's plays, so I was in the unique position, I think, of usurping the time of General Editors of two of the most prominant editions of Shakespeare's works.
A Hamlet Mystery
Regular readers may remember I was recently in London as part of my on-going work on Milton. Pouring over papers in dusty London libraires I learned much about the great writer, and also in the Uk's capital I uncovered a mystery concerning William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
In my copy of the Oxford Edition of that drama we find on page78 Figures 13 and 14, which purport to be facsimile copies of the first page of the Q1 version of Hamlet (the so-called 'Bad Quarto' of 1603) and the first page of the Q2 version (1604). But do we?
Figure 13 (which is said to be Q1) begins with the stage direction, 'Enter Bernardo, and Francisco, two Centinels.' Figure 14 (Q2) begins, 'Enter two Centinels'. But a reading of Stanely Wells's excellent introduction to the play leads one to believe these pages have been reversed, that Q2, the fuller, more acurate version of Shakespeare's play begins not with the entrance of nameless Centinels, but with, 'Enter Bernardo, and Francisco, two Centinels.'
My heart beat at the discovery, and deciding how to act made it beat the harder, as I contemplated contacting Wells, the great scholar himself. The author of numerous books on Shakespeare and General Editor of the Oxford Edition series of Shakespeare's plays, Wells is one of earth's leading Shakespeare authorities, (indeed, at http://www.sirbacon.org/wells.htm (where you can find an an excellent photo of Wells) Vanderbilt Professor Ann Cook is quoted as saying, "Stanley Wells is arguably the single most powerful authority on Shakespeare in the world, literally").
So I could not pester Wells lightly, but in the end this way seemed best, and I wrote him a letter sharing my observation. This is his reply:
Dear Mr. Wood,
Thank you for your letter, which I have just recieved. I've checked both the hardback and the paperback editions, both of which seem to me to be correct. As you say, on p.77 Q1 is said to open with Enter two Centinels. This is how the lefthand illustration on p.78 starts. I have before me a facimile of Q1 which shows that fig. 13 is correctly identified.
Best Wishes,
Yours,
Stanely Wells
I was not mortified to read this, but felt silly, and I read it in a library, so rushed to the Shakespeare section and found the Oxford Edition, and the things said by Professor Wells were as he said them in the library's copy. But then, referencing my own book, I found it did not jibe with what I saw in the library, or what Wells wrote to me, so I suspected and communicated back to Wells my theory that a mistake had been made only in the edition of The Oxford Edition I got.
After some hoopla, and more mailing (I mailed him a copy of the relevant pages from my book) I got this gratifying email:
Thanks for your letter. There is certainly a mystery here, and I'm greatful to you for drawing my attention to it. I've spoken to the editor of the World's Classics Series, who is looking into it. I'll report when I hear from her!
Best wishes,
Stanely
The solution to the mystery was soon provided by Oxford World's Classics Commisioning Editor, who wrote me,
"It appears that the two illustrations were flipped when we rescanned them in an attempt to improve the quality of the reproduction. We will correct the mistake at the earliest opportunity, and I will be happy to send you a replacement copy [...] Thank you for alerting us to the error."
A few last words: It was satisfying to be vindicated in this Hamlet mystery, after Professor Wells's initial email, and I was glad that by the end of our correspondence he was siging off as 'Stanely' (rather than with his full name, 'Stanely Wells'). Sadly I still haven't recieved a replacement for my error-containing Hamlet...but maybe that will come soon!
A final word: As I was writing to Wells I was stuyding Hamlet under the guidance of one of the General Editors of the Arden series of Shakespeare's plays, so I was in the unique position, I think, of usurping the time of General Editors of two of the most prominant editions of Shakespeare's works.
