FCE PAPER 1 Reading PART 1 Multiple choice

You are going to read a short essay about the philological problems posed by the texts and the dating of Shakespeare’s plays. For questions 1-8 choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fi ts best according to the text.

The texts and dating of Shakespeare’s plays

Shakespeare’s plays pose many problems, which may be summed up as follows: – What was the ‘original text’ written by Shakespeare? – ‘When’ were the plays written (or fi rst performed)?

The problem of the text At the time when Shakespeare was writing no playwright ever considered his plays for publication. Shakespeare and his colleagues were men of the theatre, only concerned with the staging of the plays they wrote. They may also have acted in them or directed them, but they paid no attention to the written text. Plays were not considered literature in the sense of lyrical or epic poetry, for example. Shakespeare supervised the publication of his mythological poems Venus and Adonis and Lucrece but not of his plays. The texts of the most successful plays were often published without the author’s permission: they were either copied from copy-books or prompt-books (copies used by the company when rehearsing the play), or reconstructed from notes taken by someone in the audience, or from memory by one of the players themselves. As a result, texts printed in this way were often unreliable.

The ‘quartos’ and the ‘folios’ These unreliable editions are usually called ‘bad’, and since they were published in ‘quarto’ size (so called because a whole sheet of paper is folded twice, to form four leaves) they are referred to as ‘bad quartos’. In 1597 a ‘bad quarto’ of Romeo and Juliet came out, very different from the text we use nowadays. Some of these ‘quartos’, however, were good, either because the author may have fi nally agreed to supervise the work or because the editor had used the author’s original manuscript. A ‘good quarto’ of Romeo and Juliet, very close to our modern version, came out in 1599. The fi rst fairly accurate and complete edition of Shakespeare’s plays was published posthumously in 1623. It was edited by Hemminges and Condell, two actors of The King’s Men, Shakespeare’s own company. It was ‘folio’ sized (the sheet of paper is folded only once: a very large volume), and became known as the First Folio. Many other editions soon followed. The texts that we read today are not Shakespeare’s originals, but the result of the patient work of reconstruction by philologists over the last three centuries. The method was generally that of comparing the texts of the First Folio with all other available editions and then deciding which edition was better.

The problem of the date Not of every play do we know when it was written and/or performed. More often we have to guess the date of a play taking into account external and internal evidence. A play may be mentioned in the Stationers’ Register; or we may know from contemporary documents that it was performed at some theatre or at Court; or it may be mentioned in other authors’ works. A play may contain references to contemporary historical events which help us to date it; or it may use expressions and images that come from other books whose date we know for certain. The style of a play may also help us to give it a date: we know that at certain times in his career Shakespeare made use of prose as well as verse, or of occasional rhymed couplets as well as blank verse (as in Romeo and Juliet).

FCE | Paper 1 – Reading | Part 1 – Multiple choice 1 At Shakespeare’s time, playwrights A couldn’t care less about the staging of their plays. B always directed their plays and acted in them. C supervised the publication of their plays. D didn’t think their plays would ever be published.

2 The printed texts of the plays A were regarded as literary production in their own right. B were accurately revised by their authors. C were often unreliable. D could not be published without the authors’ permission.

3 Prompt-books were A copies used by the actors while rehearsing. B texts reconstructed from memory by the players. C notes taken by some of the spectators during the performance. D copies of the original texts.

4 A ‘quarto’ is A a bad edition of a successful play. B a book made of sheets of paper folded twice. C a book made of sheets of paper folded only once. D the author’s original manuscript.

5 The First Folio is A an edition of Shakespeare’s fi rst plays. B a large volume containing all of Shakespeare’s works. C a good edition of Romeo and Juliet. D the fi rst accurate edition of Shakespeare’s plays.

6 The texts of Shakespeare’s plays, as we know them today, A were collected in a complete edition in 1623. B were edited by two players of Shakespeare’s own company. C are the result of long-lasting philological work. D were revised by the author in his lifetime.

7 The dating of Shakespeare’s plays can be inferred A by comparing different editions. B by considering both external and internal evidence. C by taking into account external evidence only. D by taking into account internal evidence only.

8 By internal evidence we mean A the style of a play, its use of images and references to contemporary events. B the recording of the date of performance at some theatre or at Court. C the mention of the play in another author’s work, the date of which we know for certain. D the mention of the play in the Stationers’ Register.

KEYS A A 8 – B 7 – C 6 – D 5 – B 4 – A 3 – C 2 – D 1

FCE | Paper 1 – Reading | Part 1 – Multiple choice