SOURCE: Watts, Cedric, ed. Introduction to An Excellent Conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, pp. 13-22. London: Prentice Hall, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1995.

In the following introduction, Watts compares the First and Second Quarto editions of Romeo and Juliet.

Brace yourself for some scholarly jargon.

The First Quarto (Q1) of Romeo and Juliet, a small paperback, was printed in 1597, the Second Quarto (Q2) in 1599. Subsequent versions—Q3 (1609), Q4 (1622), First Folio (1623) and Q5 (1637)—were all derivative, without independent authority. Recent editors suggest (with variations) that Q3 was reprinted from Q2, with some consultation of Q1; Q4 from Q3, again with consultation of Q1; Q5 from Q4; and that the First Folio was based mainly on Q3 and partly on Q4.¹

What all this boils down to is that the strange text reprinted in this volume is one of the two early texts from which stem all the familiar...