In a groundbreaking piece of scholarly detective work, Professor Honigmann uncovers in more detail than any previous study the hidden history of the two early texts of Othello, the Quarto and the Folio (Q and F). He traces the crucial roles played by two people who were closely involved in transforming Shakespeare's almost illegible manuscripts into print: Thomas Walkley, the publisher of Q, whose questionable editoral procedures and shaky finances were involving him in litigation with a printer and another of his authors during the period when Q Othello was passing through his hands; and Ralph Crane, the scribe who was responsible for preparing printer's copy for F. New evidence enables the author both to identify the scribe and to look in detail at his working practices; he argues that many readings in the F text, adopted by almost all editors and long since regarded as fundamentally 'Shakespearean', are substitutions highly characteristic of Crane, and not the words written by Shakespeare.
Building on this information, and analysing many passages in detail, the author questions time-honoured editorial procedures - among them the treatment of Shakespeare's verse lineation, punctuation and indifferent variants. Crane worked extensively on the First Folio, and these findings have important implications for a number of other plays in the Shakespeare canon and, more widely for the doctrine of the 'better text'