Shakespeare's Editors

James Boswell the younger
(1778-1822)

Introduction
James Boswell as an Editor of Shakespeare by J. Parker Norris
Links to the Boswell-Malone text of 1821

charming diffidence and loyalty

"The Editors of Shakespeare: James Boswell," by J. Parker Norris, from Shakespeariana, vol. IV, March, 1887.

AMES BOSWELL, the subject of the present sketch, was horn in 1779, in England. His father was the James Boswell who has acquired such celebrity as the biographer of Dr. Johnson. The son was educated at Westminster, and afterwards at Brasenose College. He read law and was called to the bar, and was afterwards commissioner of Bankruptcy. He died on February 24, 1822, and was buried in the Temple Churchyard, London.
He was selected by Edmond Malone to act as his literary executor, and to edit the edition of Shakespeare which the former did not live to see published. This as a delicate and laborious undertaking, and occupied him for some time. It was published, in 1821, in twenty-one volumes octavo, and has long been known as The Variorum. The title-page of Volume I reads :—

The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare, with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators : Comprehending a Life of the Poet, and an enlarged History of the Stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new Glossarial Index.

Vol. I. London : Printed for F. C. and J. Rivington ; T. Egerton ; J. Cuthell ; Scatcherd and Letterman ; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown ; Cadell and Davies ; Lackington and Co. ; J. Booker; Black and Co. ; J. Booth ; J. Richardson ; J. M. Richardson ; J. Murray ; J. Harding ; B. H. Evans ; J. Mawman ; R. Schaley ; T. Earle ; J. Bohn ; C. Brown ; Gray and Son ; R. Pheney ; Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy ; Newman and Co. ; Ogles, Duncan, and Co. ; T. Hamilton ; W . Wood ; J. Sheldon ; E. Edwards ; Whitmore and Fenn ; W. Mason ; G. and W. B. Whittaker ; Simpkin and Marshall : R Saunders ; J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge ; Wilson and Son, York ; and Stirling and Slade, Fairbairn and Anderson, and D. Brown, Edinburgh. 1821.

In the preface Boswell refers to the long and intimate friendship which had existed between his father and Malone, and of his own subsequent acquaintance with the latter. After referring to the fact of his having been chosen by Malone to edit the materials which the latter had accumulated for an edition of Shakespeare, Boswell continues as follows:—

I am far from pretending to say that, with all the advantages I enjoyed, I can hope to remedy the many imperfections which must unavoidably occur, when the mind which collected information can no longer superintend its disclosure ; and in some or the most important parts of his investigations, a chasm must be left which I am unable to supply ; yet still I can, with confidence, assert, that enough will remain to justify the publick expectation, and gratify the admirers of our greatest poet. Whatever may be the defects that shall be discovered in that portion of the work which has devolved upon me, which, I am aware, are many, and fear that more may be found, yet I trust to the candour of the reader, that he will keep in his recollection the circumstances which I have stated, [i. e. the fact that Malone left his volumlnous notes in much confusion, on scraps of paper, and often adopting a species of short hand,] and will not consider me as having thrust myself upon this employment from any over-weening confidence in my own abilities ; but as having undertaken it as a task in compliance with the last wishes of an ever dear friend.

He further states that in some cases he does not agree with the opinions expressed in the work, but that he felt bound to give Malone's and not his own, and that only in a few instances has he recorded the latter. Next be defends the great care he has taken in the collation of the text, and shows how Steevens was often very careless in this respect. He then tells of the great superiority of the First Folio to the Second, which Steevens had adopted as his authority, while Malone rightly preferred the former. The remainder of the preface treats of various matters.
Following the preface Boswell printed an excellent biographical memoir—excellent in composition but giving few facts of Malone's life ; and then gave the prefaces of Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, Dr. Johnson, Capell, Steevens, Malone and Reed, besides Dr. Farmer's Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, Malone's Essay on Shakespeare, Ford and Johnson, Rowe's Life of Shakespeare, commendatory poems on the poet, and an Essay on Phraseology and Metre. All the above are contained in the first volume. The second commences with Malone's history of the stage, which occupies 528 pages. Following this are articles on Shakespeare's coat of arms, the conveyance from Walker to the poet, his mortgage, declaration of trust, Shakespeare's will, extracts from the Stratford Register, entries on the Stationer's books, list of early editions of Shakespeare, dedication and preface of the First Folio, modern editions, plays ascribed to and altered from Shakespeare, etc. The third volume embraces Malone's history of the stage, additions from Henslowe's Register, additions by Steevens, appendix from Malone's papers, Chalmer's account of the stage, etc. The fourth volume commences with the plays, which are printed in what Malone considered their chronological order to be. Following the plays are printed the poems, memoirs of Lord Southampton, Pericles, Titus Andronicus, and an index.
The notes are printed at the bottom of the page, and are by all the commentators and editors. They are very voluminous though Boswell added comparatively very few of his own. He improved the text however, and is entitled to great credit for the careful manner in which he performed his duty. His was not a task which many would have cared to undertake, but the ,world of letters owes him much for giving it in such a complete form the vast stores collected by Malone.

Links to the Boswell-Malone text of 1821

James Boswell the younger (son of Johnson's biographer) inherited the literary remains of Edmond Malone, and dutifully edited them into what became known as the "third variorum" edition, published in 21 volumes in 1821. It marked the culmination of 18th century Shakespeare scholarship, and the end of a tradition in variorum editions. The following edition, of Samuel Weller Singer in 1826, revolted against the imposing scholarly trappings associated with the variorum editions by minimizing notes and doing away with most comment and, indeed, mostly all scholarly comment. Numerous editions of Shakespeare followed in the nineteenth century, based upon the text here reflected, of the work of the great editors starting with Rowe, proceeding through Theobald to Dr. Johnson, encompassing Steevens, and running through Malone-Boswell, but without reproducing the minute notes and other critical apparatus of this great edition. Therefore, the "third variorum" edited by Boswell became the scholarly standard of the 19th century, and held dominance, in spite of editions by Charles Knight, Alexander Dyce and John Payne Collier (prior to his exposure as a forger), until the Cambridge edition of 1863-1866 superseded it. I present below links to the first three volumes of Boswell's edition (note that he insisted on Malone's name appearing on the title page, and not his own). The first three volumes contain strictly prolegomena, with the plays beginning in the fourth volume. This edition stands as a monument to Malone, to 18th century scholarship in general, and to the modesty and dutiful diligence of James Boswell the younger in particular. Reading the prolegomena herein contained is a full education in the Shakespeare scholarship as it had developed to 1821, and a generally good foundation to all modern scholarship.
As you will see, among the plays—which are well printed and available in full view and downloadable PDF formats—here are some valuable scholarly nuggets, particularly An Account of the Incidents, from which the Title and Part of the Story of Shakspeare's Tempest Were Derived; and its True Date Ascertained in volume XV; Malone's Dissertation of the Three Parts of King Henry VI Tending to Show That Those Plays were Not Written Originally by Shakspeare in volume XVIII; the Memoirs of Henry Wriothesley, The Third Earl of Southampton in volume XX; and the very valuable Glossarial Index, of Words, Phrases, Customs and Persons, Explained or Mentioned in the Notes in volume XXI, which provides an alphabetical index to the contents of the numerous notes by the various commentators included in the volumes. I believe this is the first time this material has been made so accessible on the Internet.
The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare, with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators : Comprehending a Life of the Poet, and an enlarged History of the Stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new Glossarial Index, 1821.