Shakespeare seems to have thought as his work as means of entertainment and not literature. Because of this, many of the plays we have today are bad quartos. An article by Professor Mahood titled Shakespeare 's Wordplay, goes over the history of these bad quartos, which were “memorial reconstructions of the play for provincial performance by a reduced company, or the botched text reproduced by a single actor for unauthorized publication.” Romeo and Juliet is even considered one of these. Mahood suggests that one of the ways a bad quarto can be distinguished, is from it’s less sophisticated use of wordplay. Instances of wordplay that ‘got laughs’ were retained, but subtler wordplay got lost (Mahood, 11). These bad quartos are significant in showing that Shakespeare did not think of himself as a literary writer, but as a playwright, an entertainer whose work was meant to be performed and watched, which helps explain his unique use of punctuation and
Shakespeare seems to have thought as his work as means of entertainment and not literature. Because of this, many of the plays we have today are bad quartos. An article by Professor Mahood titled Shakespeare 's Wordplay, goes over the history of these bad quartos, which were “memorial reconstructions of the play for provincial performance by a reduced company, or the botched text reproduced by a single actor for unauthorized publication.” Romeo and Juliet is even considered one of these. Mahood suggests that one of the ways a bad quarto can be distinguished, is from it’s less sophisticated use of wordplay. Instances of wordplay that ‘got laughs’ were retained, but subtler wordplay got lost (Mahood, 11). These bad quartos are significant in showing that Shakespeare did not think of himself as a literary writer, but as a playwright, an entertainer whose work was meant to be performed and watched, which helps explain his unique use of punctuation and