New Shakespeare
New Shakespeare (Cambridge, 1921–66).The critical introductions to the earlier volumes in this important edition of the works, written by ‘Q’ (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), are in belletristic style and largely forgotten, but the textual work of John Dover Wilson proved enormously influential. By 1947, when his notable edition of Macbeth appeared, he had taken complete charge of the series, and wrote his own challenging critical accounts of the plays. Later on he collaborated with G. I. Duthie, J. C. Maxwell, Alice Walker, and Peter Ure. But Dover Wilson's is the name associated with the overall plan of a series that was the first to bring A. W. Pollard's recognition of the authority of the quartos (1916–17) and Sir Edmund Maunde Thompson's discovery of Shakespeare's hand in Sir Thomas More (1916) to bear on the editing of Shakespeare. Dover Wilson's full discussions of the copy for the texts became required reading after...
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