I very much doubt that this edition would be of use for scholarly work.
Even the 5 vol. Hebel has many problems. For example, Drayton revised
his pastorals and odes and very extensively cut Piers Gaveston and his
other legends. The Hebel uses the 1619 as folio as copy text and
corrects against that. That fifth volume is printed in very tiny type
to pack all of this information into a small space, but, I, at least had
to write out sections of the poems to see what they would have read like
in 1609 or 1611. If you want to see what was going on during these
various revisions of his verse, you almost need to see copies of the
versions printed in early texts. If you don't have access to a rare
book library on the order of the Huntington, Folger, or Newberry, then I
would look at microfilms. It is very hard to visualize cuts--the new
facing editions of the folio and quarto King Lear acknowledge this. The
changes that Drayton makes are far more substantive than the two Lears.
I summarize many specific revisions in my Drayton monograph.
Having said this about the complexities of texts, I believe that Mario
DiCesare was thinking of doing a reprint of Buxton's 2 volume reading
edition under his Pegasus imprint. You might check the inventory of Di
Cesare and see if that materialized.
If you want to continue this off-line, I can give you information on
specific poems.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Wilson-Okamura
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 7:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Drayton edition
This morning I was looking for used editions of Drayton. No luck finding
the 5 vol. Hebel ed., but I did see a three-volume set for about $50
(US). Is it any good? Bookseller's description follows:
The Complete Works of Michael Drayton, Now First Collected. With
Introductions and Notes by Richard Hooper. 3 vols. Elibron Classics.
Elibron Classics, 2001. This book is an Elibron Classics reprint.
Paperback. New. Originally published by John Russell Smith, London,
1876.
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David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
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