Editing Titus Andronicus (section)

===Text===
The 1594 quarto text of the play, with the same title, was reprinted by [[James Roberts (printer)|James Roberts]] for Edward White in 1600 (Q2). On 19 April 1602, Millington sold his share in the copyright to Thomas Pavier. However, the next version of the play was published again for White, in 1611, under the slightly altered title ''The Most Lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus'', printed by Edward Allde (Q3).

Q1 is considered a 'good text' (i.e. not a [[bad quarto]] or a [[memorial reconstruction|reported text]]), and it forms the basis for most modern editions of the play. Q2 appears to be based on a damaged copy of Q1, as it is missing a number of lines which are replaced by what appear to be guess work on the part of the compositor. This is especially noticeable at the end of the play where four lines of dialogue have been added to Lucius' closing speech; "See justice done on Aaron, that damned Moor,/By whom our heavy haps had their beginning;/Then afterwards to order well the state,/That like events may ne'er it ruinate." Scholars tend to assume that when the compositor got to the last page and saw the damage, he presumed some lines were missing, when in fact none were.<ref>Dover Wilson (1948: vii)</ref> Q2 was considered the control text until 1904, when the copy of Q1 now at the [[Folger Shakespeare Library]] was discovered in Sweden.<ref>Andrew Murphy, ''Shakespeare in Print: A History and Chronology of Shakespeare Publishing'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 23</ref> Together with a 1594 printing of ''Henry VI, Part II'', the Folger's Q1 ''Titus'' is the earliest extant printed Shakespearean play.<ref>Esther Ferington (ed.), ''Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library'' (University of Washington Press, 2002), 155</ref> Q2 also corrects a number of minor errors in Q1. Q3 is a further degradation of Q2, and includes a number of corrections to the Q2 text, but introduces many more errors.

The ''First Folio'' text of 1623 (F1), under the title ''The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus'', is based primarily on the Q3 text (which is why modern editors use Q1 as the control rather than the usual practice in Shakespeare of using the ''Folio'' text). However, the ''Folio'' text includes material found in none of the quarto editions, primarily Act 3, Scene 2 (also called the 'fly-killing scene'). It is believed that while Q3 was probably the main source for the ''Folio'', an annotated [[prompter (theatre)|prompter]]'s copy was also used, particularly in relation to stage directions, which differ significantly from all of the quarto texts.<ref>See Adams (1936: 19–25) for an extensive comparison between the four versions of the play: Q1, Q2, Q3 and F1. See also the various collations to the many modern editions of the play, such as Dover Wilson (1948), Maxwell (1953), Harrison (1958), Barnet (1963, 1989 and 2005), Cross (1966 and 1977), Waith (1984), Hughes (1994 and 2006), Bate (1995), MacDonald (2000) and Massai (2001)</ref>

As such, the text of the play that is today known as ''Titus Andronicus'' involves a combination of material from Q1 and F1, the vast majority of which is taken from Q1.

[[File:Peacham Drawing.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.70|The Peacham drawing ({{circa|1595}})]]