Shakespeare Reshaped, 1606-1623

`In 120 pages of awesome detective work Taylor and Jowett prove that there were interpolations after Shakespeare's death and they were probably made by the dramatist Thomas Middleton. One can only regard such authority with humble respect. The book is not an entertainment, it is an excavation.' ryan Appleyard, The Independent
`their undoubted brilliance has changed the look of things, perhaps for ever, on the Shakespeare scene' The Observer
'The primary strengths are meticulous attention to detail and an admirable determination to establish authoritative texts, ... this is a serious and scholarly study which provides much food for editorial thought,' Richard A. McCabe. Merton College, Oxford. Theatre Research International. Vol 19
'The authors analyse a great mass of data clearly, logically, and with stylistic flair. Their book contains an introduction, a postscript, and six appendices. It will be indispensable to scholars concerned with the textual study and editing of plays by Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists, and useful to all who want to extend their knowledge of theatre conditions during the period with which it deals.' MacD. P. Jackson, University of Auckland, Modern Language Review, 25, 1995
'a complex and carefully reasoned brief for textual emendation ... Textual scholars and general Shakespeareans as well will want to examine the claims closely' Larry S. Champion, North Carolina State University, English Studies, Vol. 76, No. 1
It is impossible in a short review to do full justice to a book that raises many complex and interesting issues. * The Library *
another textual study generated from the project which gave us in the 1980's the Oxford Complete Works and Textual Companion, as well as the important study of he Lear variants, The Division of the Kingdoms. * Notes and Queries Vol 41 no 4 *
the authors assemble an impressive body of textual and historical evidence in support of their conclusion...the essays in this volume have been long overdue...but for all serious students of Shakespeare's text they were clearly worth the wait. * Modern Philology *
the insights and arguments provided by Gary Taylor and John Jowett offer fresh challenges to anyone setting out to edit any Renaissance dramatic text ... The 'proof' which Taylor and Jowett provide to show that Middleton and not Shakespeare wrote the opening of the second scene of Measure for Measure is impressive: both exhaustive and exhausting. It draws on a wide range of statistical, bibliographical, stylistic, dramaturgical, and historical evidence. So cleverly do the two authors present their case that this reader was left sensing that they had available to them an armoury which could enable them to prove that almost any scene by anyone was written by someone else. If Taylor and Jowett's case is sound, we owe a considerable debt to Middleton. * J.G. Saunders, Chichester Institute of Higher Education, Review of English Studies, Vol. 47, No. 186, May '96 *
What it delivers is significant and important ... For the textual scholar, but also for the literary critic, the discussions in these essays carry implications that should not be underestimated or ignored. * Peter L. Shillingsburg, TEXT, Volume 9, 1997 *