I want to hurl the book across the room when I read a footnote explaining that unmerciful means... wait for it... merciless.

I don't need an exhaustive and ultimately inconclusive disquisition upon whether the original text read wild, vild, or vile.

Having said that, without annotations some of the Plays are steep reading.

Which editions strike the right balance between copious and unobtrusive?

Brian, I have a perfect facsimile of the First Folio in which the internal s's are f's, and the ending s's are s's.
In which every elision is clearly marked by apostrophe. It has no notes. At 57, I find it hard to read, but it is the only edition I consult. Very expensive. When I get confused I have other editions to consult. Highly recommended.

Likewise, I have the Modern Library poems of John Donne which I purchased as an undergrad in the Sixties. All the misspellings are there, every elision marked according to seventeenth century norms. This one has notes at the bottom of each page which I found useful when I was eighteen. Don't need them now, but it is Donne's original orthography, and it teaches me just how crazy a metrist he was, and what a genius he is.

on the lighter side Brian screwing with meanings --

is that why un-less is seen as in the negative ?

and merci is as close to French as I can speak outside of four letter words

somehow breaks down to meaning

“none thank you, not so much”
~~henie

Tim,

I've grown to prefer Donne with original spelling. As you point out, the old elision marks show that his meter is much more regular than is apparent from modern spelling. I wouldn't want to wade through Folio Shakespeare, though.

I have Kermode's edition of Donne, which I find too sparsely annotated. The Arden volume of Lear goes to the opposite extreme, such that the footnotes take up more space than the text. They're good and thorough, but the labourious cross-referencing to the source material, the other plays, & Q vs F are for the scholar not the reader, and it seems unnecessary to explain e.g. that 'ingrateful' mean 'ungrateful' or that 'offices' means 'duties'.

Brian,

The Oxford, Cambridge, and Arden editions of the plays all have their good points. As you say, their joint problem is that the editors are pandering more to an audience of undergradute / postgraduate students, and the bibliographic information and occasionally redundant footnotes are a problem. I do find the Oxford editions to be slightly more concise while remaining useful, if that counts for anything. I seem to remember Bevington's complete edition striking a nice balance, but it has been a while since i've used it.

Donne is a rather more tricky proposition, given his textual history. The penguin edition seems to be mostly okay, but I can't recall offhand if it modernizes spelling or not. There's the forthcoming Longman edition, which are usually both plentiful and intelligent with their notes, but it's expensive and probably not worth it. On the plus side, it's better than the Variorum edition, which boasts no less than a page of commentary for each line of poetry! Academia gone mad.

Sorry that wasn't more helpful.
Craig

Brian, I have no suggestions for Donne, but I am very happy wih the Yale Shakespeare: The Complete Works (eds. Wilbur L. Cross & Tucker Brooke).

Though it's a day's work to can carry it over to the reading desk, it is scholarly yet readable, and doesn't tell one a lot of dumb things that make you exclaim, "Mercy!"

Janice

I've had the Hardin Craig Shakespeare for 40 years; I like it better than Hardison's edition.

There is a whole series of Shakespeare for modern (i. e. illiterate) students available at B&N. It's pretty funny stuff.

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/page_138.html

Thanks all.

I hadn't considered getting a Complete Works, partly because the ones I've seen use a small font and thin paper, so not so comfortable for reading. But it's something that would be good to have for reference. I've been watching all the plays I can get my hands on, and often want to look scenes up.

I'll see if I can find the suggested editions locally.

Those SparkNotes -- ugh! I was thinking the other day it would be very post-modern to come out with a "The Waste Land for Dummies™".

Brian, the Yale Complete Works of Shakespeare has a very raadable typeface and line spacing. The book is huge, but it can double as a coffee table so is a good investment.

Also it is too heavy to hurl across the room. Shame on you for even thinking about treating a book like that.

Check it out at your local library. I think you might like it.