An Edition Of The Rover :: essays research papers fc

An Edition of The Rover This project grew out of an exercise designed primarily to givegraduate students practical experience in the processes of textbookualbibliography. It was continued and completed based on two beliefs first, that the errors found amoung extant translations ar significantenough to warrant further revision, and second, that the existence of atext with format and language accessible to modern readers is essentialto the survival of this important work. With these aims in mind, wehave worked to produce an edition of The Rover that respects not singlethe believed intentions of the author and the integrity of the earliertexts, but also the needs and concerns of contemporary students,teachers, actors, directors, and audiences of all sorts. The version of the play chosen as the copy text for this editionwas the second issue of the first edition, printed in 1677. The firstcomparison text was an issue of the second edition that was printed in1697. The second compariso n text was a 1915 volume edited by MontagueSummers. Summers text was chosen because it is based primarily upon a1724 collection of Behns dramatic pieces--a collection that, accordingto Summers, is by outlying(prenominal) the best and most reliable edition of thecollected theater.Most of the changes documented in the textual notes stem fromsubstantive discrepancies between these three texts. Often thesediscrepancies are the result of words or phrases being inverted from oneedition to another. Note 44, for instance, concerns the stagedirections in a scene where Florinda hugs Belvile and his vizard fallsoff. In the earliest edition, the hugging precedes the unmasquing, butin the 1697 edition, the masque falls off before the embrace. The orderin which these actions are performed have significant consequence forthe audiences understanding of Florindas motivations is she huggingBelvile because she thinks he is Belvile, or because she thinks he issomeone else? Other noted discrepancies ar e cases where words wereomitted in one or to a greater extent of the editions. In the 1677 and 1915 versions,for example, Philipo delivers the line in Act III, Blame me not,Lucetta yet in the 1697 version, the line reads Blame not Lucetta(note 32). Again, the difference is substantial is Philipo attemptingto shift culpability from himself or from Lucetta? In these cases,unless the context of the action suggests that the changes of the latertexts were logically sound (see note 61), the copy text was taken as theauthoritative version.In some instances, accidental changes were also cited in thetextual notes (see notes 28, 58, and 65, for example).