The Ends of Shakespeare

The Ends of Shakespeare investigates the provenance and transmission of the play-texts of Shakespeare we read, analyse, perform, and teach today. Divided into two parts, the book first assesses the evidence for the production, circulation, and publication of Shakespeare's works in his own lifetime, and, by focusing on the latter half of the poet-dramatist's career, offers an original account of the factors affecting the demand for, and supply of, Shakespeare's creative labour during this period. The second part offers the first study of the other 'lost years' in Shakespeare studies: the ten years that passed between Shakespeare's retirement from writing plays, c. 1613–14, and the publication of the First Folio collection in late 1623 that preserved so many of his plays. This part is ordered chronologically, with the study tracing and tracking what happens to Shakespeare's scripts from 1613/14 to late 1623 and situating such activities in the context of an evolving theatrical scene left behind in Shakespeare's wake. The Ends of Shakespeare seeks to reassess, in a comprehensive way, the versions of Shakespeare's plays preserved through print by analysing the contexts and conditions in which such acts of preservation occurred. More broadly, the book aims to shift how readers of Shakespeare think about issues related to textual authenticity, authority, and the formation of the Shakespearean canon.