The Minnows Of Triton

In Greek mythology, Triton wass he merman son of Poseidon and Amphrite who lived in a golden palace on the bottom of the ocean. A demi-god of the seas, he was represented as a human to his waist but with the tail of a fish. Armed with a trident, he used a large twisted seashell to calm or raise the waves. The minnows, defined as undersized fish often devoured as bait, are the Pacific Islands constantly threatened by external forces.

The First Folio of 1623 was prepared for print by two members of Shakespeare's acting troupe -- John Hemings and Henry Condell -- which included comic actor Will Kemp and the great tragedian Richard Burbage. In a fascinating and detailed introduction, Freeman points out that because Shakespeare and his colleagues wrote from a rhetorical tradition -- a society where the emphasis was on the spoken word -- he wrote with an eye to how he wanted his plays performed, giving as much direction as possible to his actors. Freeman looks at what is known of the printing of that First Folio and analyzes the variations between the First Folio, later Folios, Quarto editions (where available) and modern editions of the plays. He examines the "corrections" made by editors over the centuries that have shaped the way we perceive Shakespeare today -- from the regularization of verse, to the changes from prose to verse (and vice versa) and the standardization of character prefixes.

The first New Variorum edition of Coriolanus, by Horace Howard Furness, Jr., was published in 1928. The present edition follows Furness's but does not replace it because frequently the more recent scholarship and criticism recorded here could be accommodated only by reducing Furness's fuller treatment of earlier material. The reader who finds this edition useful is urged to consult Furness's as well to obtain a fuller account on many subjects. Niels Herold wrote the section on Music and Sound Effects, and Sylvia Bryant and Ian Aspinall translated German criticism. Megan-Marie Johnson collaborated with me on the Plan of the Work, on the collations necessary to compile the Textual Notes, and on the Commentary. Ashley Spriggs helped revise the Plan of the Work and the Textual Notes. Both of these latter assistants also had a hand in all the other sections of the edition...