ABSTRACT
The carousel of theories: the copy for Antony and Cleopatra was Shakespeare’s foul papers, or his fair papers, or a prompt copy, or a producer’s copy – in Shakespeare’s autograph or in a scribal hand, as the case may be. Since the First Folio (1623) offers the first and only text of Antony and Cleopatra, the textual situation should be simple or at least notably simpler than that of plays with both quarto and folio versions. Most damaging, however, an examination of the application of the theory to Antony and Cleopatra reveals that the evidence for the strongly held and widely accepted position is limited and circumstantial, even illogical, at any rate not nearly as conclusive as its proponents would like to have it. In addition to the supposedly typical Shakespearian spellings, John Dover Wilson also finds Shakespeare’s handwriting behind still other orthographic forms in Antony.
