In beginning his 1995 review of editions and textual studies for Shakespeare Survey, H.R. Woudhuysen refers, wryly, to the increased challenge that contemporary movements in textual and editorial theory appear to be giving proponents of the New Bibliography: When considering some of the editions and textual studies published in the last year or so, it is hard not to be reminded of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." (268) The review itself chronicles work on a number of text-related and textual issues of no small import to the Shakespearean scholar, some more specifically related to the challenge against the New Bibliography than others: the credence given to performance and non-performance texts in recent editions, scene divisions, attribution, editorial emendation, dating, and beyond -- integral issues, all. But if Woudhuysen's survey had also included issues relating to the growing number of electronic editions of Shakespeare, the proverbial curse that is brought to his reader's attention would surely take on new and much larger dimensions.

1. technology

Original publication information:

Originally published in Early Modern Literary Studies 3.3

Date: January, 1998.

URL: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/03-3/siemshak.html

Original citation:

Siemens, R.G. "Disparate Structures, Electronic and Otherwise: Conceptions of Textual Organisation in the Electronic Medium, with Reference to Electronic Editions of Shakespeare and the Internet. Early Modern Literary Studies 3.3 / Special Issue 2 (January, 1998): 6.1-29 http://purl.oclc.org/emls/03-3/siemshak.html.