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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
In "Shakspere & Typography," William Blades delves into the intricate relationship between the renowned playwright William Shakespeare and the art of printing. This scholarly work combines rich historical detail with a meticulous examination of typography's evolution during the Elizabethan era, a time when the printed word began to assume its formidable cultural power. Blades employs a clear and engaging literary style, interweaving primary sources and anecdotes to illuminate the conditions under which Shakespeare'Äôs texts were produced, perpetuated, and ultimately canonized. He meticulously maps out the various typographical forms and practices that not only influenced Shakespeare's works but also shaped the broader literary landscape of the period. William Blades was a notable bibliographer and printer; his professional journey and passion for typography significantly inform his insights in this book. Having worked extensively in the printing industry and deeply examined various texts, Blades understood how the physical presentation of literature could affect its reception and understanding. His authoritative knowledge positions him uniquely to explore the nuances of Shakespeare's printing, offering readers a comprehensive view punctuated by personal anecdotes from his scholarly pursuits. "Shakspere & Typography" is an essential read for scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Shakespearean literature and the history of print. Blades offers a thought-provoking perspective that enhances our appreciation for the Bard's work while also providing a greater understanding of the historical context that shaped it. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to comprehend the intersection of literature and the technology that propagated it.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Shakspere & Typography
Table of Contents
The INTRODUCTION
n the good old days when printing was better recognized as a mystery than as an art, one could call a printer ‘a man of letters’ without being guilty of a pun. Books were for the few then, and the man who would print them must be somewhat of a scholar himself.
To-day, amid the whirr of many presses, and the hurrying to and fro of the printing office, the printer finds little or no time for literary pursuits, despite the fact that printing is, in very truth, the handmaid of literature. It is the more admirable, therefore, when a successful printer attains to a degree of scholarship—particularly scholarship in matters that enlighten and dignify his own handicraft.
Such a printer was William Blades. During fifty years of active business life he contributed to the history of printing, a goodly number of books and a mass of miscellaneous articles. Among these is the most complete and authoritative life of Caxton, England’s first printer, representing an immense amount of study and research.
The book from which the following pages are reprinted is perhaps the least familiar of Blades’ works, and it evidently was written as a literary recreation. The thought that reading it may afford recreation to those busied about the making of books, and the comparative scarcity of the only edition, are the excuses for reprinting the more interesting portion.
The first chapter (merely a resumé of the theories that have been advanced by various professions and callings to claim Shakspere for their own) has been omitted; likewise the appendix, which is a suggestion that many of the obscurities in the text of Shakspere may be cleared up by a study of the typographical errors in the first editions. With these exceptions, the work is given here entire, and, it is hoped, in such form as accords with the spirit of the author, whose tastes were those of the scholarly printer.
Editorial Dept.The Winthrop Press,32 Lafayette Place, N. Y.November, 1897
The PREFACE
The First Chapter of this Tractate is designed to show, in a succinct manner, the numerous and contradictory theories concerning Shakspere’s special knowledge, the evidence for which has been created by ‘selecting’ certain words and phrases from the mass of his writings.
The Second and Third Chapters, erected on a similar basis of ‘selection’, are intended to prove that Shakspere had an intimate and special knowledge of Typography.
Old Printers can still call to mind that period of our history when a stalwart Pressman, on his way to work, ran considerable risk in the streets of London of being seized by another kind of pressmen, viz., the Press-gang, and forced nolens volens into the service of the King. Some readers (not Printers) may think that I have exercised over quotations from Shakspere’s works a similar compulsion, by pressing into my service passages whose bearing is by no means in a typographical direction. They may even go so far as to strain somewhat the self-accusation of Falstaff (Henry IV, iv, 2), and bring against me the charge that
I have misused the King’s press most damnably, by printing such evidences.
I can only reply that if, notwithstanding a careful consideration of the proofs here laid before him, the reader should consider my case ‘not proven’, I must submit with all humility to his penetration and judgment.
At the same time, since my proofs that Shakspere was a Printer are at least quite as conclusive as the evidence brought forward by others to demonstrate that he was Doctor, Lawyer, Soldier, Sailor, Catholic, Atheist, Thief, I would claim as a right that my opponent, having rejected my theory that he was a Printer, should be consistent, and at once, reject all theories which attribute to him special knowledge, and repose upon the simple belief that Shakspere, the Actor and Playwright, was a man of surpassing genius, of keen observation, and never-failing memory.
W. B.
