Should Shakespeare's plays be presented in the spelling and punctuation of the early editions, or should these features of the text be modernized? What are the advantages and disadvantages of either procedure? When error is suspected in these texts, what kinds of correction can be attempted? How can Shakespeare's plays, written for the theatre and first printed with inadequate stage directions, best be presented for the reader? When texts survive in two versions, one close to the point of composition, the other reflecting performance by Shakespeare's company, which should the editor prefer? Can fresh thought about a play's staging affect its text? These are among the questions raised and discussed by this book. Welcoming the major advances in the bibliographical study of Shakespeare in recent years, the book is concerned with the practical problems of putting the result of such study into editorial effect. In a detailed investigation of the relationship between dialogue and stage action in Act One of Titus Andronicus, the book brings the reader close to Shakespeare in the act of creation; a conjectured reconstruction of Shakespeare's first draft of the Act is included.