BirminghamUK:
Even though Macbeth was written hundreds of years ago, today it still remains very accessible and widespread, with hundreds of different versions available both in text and online. Of course, some versions are more credible than others, the version of Macbeth available on the Birmingham website is in some ways quite credible, but at times inaccurate.First, the physical layout of the webpage is less than adequate. For some reason, the website creators decided to write all the text in only one column with no line numbers or links to different sections, making it very hard to navigate and visually unappealing. While the Oxford version will sometimes begin one line where the previous line ends to follow the meter, all the spacing of the Birmingham version is completely even.
In the online version, many words in the past tense are changed to "-’d" from "-ed". This occurs when the captain is speaking, and the "-’d" seems to suggest that the captain is not very articulate. The online version also prints "the chops" as "th’ chaps". When the captain is speaking, "chops" sounds more suitable as "chaps" sounds almost uncouth. The other character in the exchange in scene two is Duncan. In the online version, Duncan seems enthusiastic and excited as there are exclamation marks at the end of all his lines (1.2.24). This is in direct conflict with Duncan’s character, who has been presented as a gentle person thus far. The changes which the Birmingham version have made do not seem to complement the characters. In the online version, the Captain is called ‘Sergeant’, and the King is called ‘king’. These are both matters of time-appropriateness, and are differences in terms of character information.
Another difference between the online version and the book is the addition of headings, such as in Act 1 Scene 1, “A desert place.” is added. There is no such heading in the book, and while it may be accurate, the authors have no way of knowing if this was Shakespeare's original intended setting. An example of another difference in the stage directions is where it says in the online version , “Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches.”, which implies to us that instead of breaking this direction into two lines, the editor is trying to connect the thunder and lightning to the witches.
Although this Birmingham version is quite different from the Oxford edition, and in our opinion not very credible, it probably will still be around in 5 years as it has already stood the test of time. It was the "Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare", and has been on the internet since 1993.
Bibliography:
Hylton, Jeremy. Macbeth: Entire Play. No revision date. The Tech. 20 Jan. 2007.
3 comments:
Your analysis, though hard to follow and choppy, offers a good understanding of the essential points and differences between the Oxford version and this online version. On top, you offer what seem to be your rough notes, with headers that neither attract attention nor are spaced out in a clear way. You lose us in that section. The written analysis afterwards is clear though.
I also do not agree with you on one point. In your analysis you say that each scene has a title. This is not true; it is simply a very (very) shory summary of the scene, offering a sense of time, and setting. Not bad, overall.
--Jordan
I agree with your comment about the disruption of the meter on this online edition of the text. Although you did not really expand on this point, personally, I find that this change in the formatting takes away from the authenticity of the text itself. Shakespeare wrote his plays in verse, and meant for his work to follow a certain meter, sometimes allowing a line to be completed by the next person who speaks. Because this online version does not show in the formatting the continuation of a previous line (as the book does), readers can not really tell that it’s a continuation of the previous line.
~Sarah
Your analysis makes some strong points, although the structure is choppy and the mechanics needs some cleaning up. (For example, there are a few places where a semi-colon would've been better than a comma.) It is an interesting observation that the editor may have in fact created a setting for Act 1 Scene 1, and one I wouldn't have noticed unless I was very meticulously proofreading the site for accuracy. It may, though, have been more interesting if you discussed the possible consequences of this and the other changes you mention. How would they change the final play, if you were producing the play from this online copy?
Overall some good insight, but it could do with some organization/flow work, and also some more detailed comments. -Grant
Post a Comment