"'Get a pen that writes fuller, sweet husband': Manuscript Textuality and Editorial Process"
A Talk by M. J. Kidnie at the Universite de Montreal
Friday, November 24
4 p.m.
(Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, Rm. C-8111)

ABSTRACT: Despite important contributions by W. W. Greg, William B. Long, Paul Werstine, and, most recently, Grace Ioppolo, early modern manuscript drama remains a neglected field. This paper will explore the various ways in which manuscript texts, with their marginalia, multiple hands and inks, and interlined revisions, inscribe the material conditions—and the sometimes mutually inconsistent stages—of textual-theatrical production. Focusing on the texts of The Humorous Magistrate, a Caroline drama attributed to John Newdigate III, the paper will show how editorial and theoretical issues of revision, authority, and manuscript circulation can combine to make it impossible to establish any ready identification of a work with text or document, or with authorial intention. (This manuscript play is the subject of a major international collaborative research project supported by SSHRC.