Introduction

This book is directly part of a 12-year project during which we, Peter Lichtenfels and Lynette Hunter, have worked on editing Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet for the accompanying electronic edition on DVD (also available at www. romeoandjuliet.net.nz). Although we had not worked together before, we knew each other well, being married. Lynette Hunter is a literary critic who works on the history of rhetoric, feminism and performance. She is also a bibliographer and a theorist and practitioner of textual editing. Peter Lichtenfels is a director and artistic director in the theatre, as well as a scholar of theatre practice and a teacher of directing and acting. Both of us were interested in the early modern period and in Shakespeare’s writing, and in their interrelation with culture and society today.