ABSTRACT
The core of practically every problem in textual criticism is a problem of style, and the categories of stylistics are still far less settled than those of textual criticism. And there is the further danger that the editor in making his recension may fall into the habit of forgetting his responsibility for being continually alive to the author's style. Maas was a German classical scholar of some distinction, and his Textual Criticism is confined almost exclusively to Greek and Latin literature. But it provides a lucid and humane general introduction to this specialized technique. One of the most famous of Shakespearean cruxes occurs in the Hostess's account of Falstaff's death in Henry V. Because of the number of interpretations and emendations it has provoked it can be used as a test-case to illustrate the methods that have to be employed in almost every similar crux in English literature.
