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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Molly Yarn on Shakespeare's 'Lady Editors'

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7837 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the centuries there have been hundreds of editions of Shakespeare’s plays: Small, inexpensive schoolbook copies of individual plays, massive, leatherbound editions of the complete works, and everything in between. At some point, every one of those editions passed under the eyes of an editor who decided which version of which disputed word would be included, how characters’ names would be spelled, whether a quarto’s version was the best to use here or maybe the version in the First Folio, and so on. While the names of the many of Shakespeare’s male editors are well-known, up until now there has been little to nothing written about another group of Shakespeare editors: Women, who—since the early 19th century—have labored editing Shakespeare in the shadows of men, sometimes getting no credit at all, and sometimes—as you’ll hear—only getting blame. While Molly Yarn was writing her doctoral thesis on women editing Shakespeare, she discovered almost seventy female editors of Shakespeare. Now, she’s written about them in a new book, Shakespeare’s “Lady Editors.” She talks with Barbara Bogaev about Elizabeth Inchbald, Laura Valentine, Charlotte Stopes, and their editorial sisters in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Dr. Molly G. Yarn, an independent scholar living in Athens, GeorgiA, is the author of Shakespeare’s ‘Lady Editors’: A New History of the Shakespearean Text. It was published by Cambridge University Press and released in the United States in 2022. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published March 1, 2022. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “A Woman's Voice May Do Some Good” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Andrew Feyer at Brooklyn Podcasting Studio in New York.

Transcript

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0:00.0

When the topic of discussion is Shakespeare's editors,

0:03.8

if it's your field, you know the names Nicholas Rowe, Alexander Pope, Lewis Tibald.

0:09.6

But what about Elizabeth Inchbald?

0:12.6

What about Charlotte Stopes?

0:15.2

What about Laura Valentine?

0:18.2

No?

0:19.1

Well, keep listening.

0:25.6

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.

0:34.7

Over the centuries, there have been hundreds of editions of Shakespeare's plays,

0:38.3

small, inexpensive schoolbook copies of individual works, massive leather-bound editions of the

0:44.9

complete works, and everything in between. At some point, every one of those editions passed

0:51.7

under the eyes of an editor who decided which version of which

0:56.0

disputed word would be included, how characters' names would be spelled, whether a cordo's

1:02.1

version was the best to use here, or maybe the version in the first folio, and how much would

1:07.1

be explained about each of these edits, or how little.

1:11.6

While the names of the male editors of many of these Shakespeare editions are famous,

1:16.2

up until now there has been little or nothing written about another group of Shakespeare

1:20.5

editors, women, who since the 19th century have labored editing Shakespeare in the shadows

1:26.9

of men, sometimes getting no credit at all,

1:30.3

and sometimes, as you'll hear, only getting blame.

1:34.3

Independent scholar Molly G. Yarn has written a new book titled Shakespeare's Lady Editors

1:40.3

that is designed to remedy this oversight. Dr. Yarn's book began as her doctoral thesis

...

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