Walter Wilson Greg
Encyclopedia
Sir Walter Wilson Greg was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare
scholars of the 20th century.
Greg was born at Wimbledon Common
in 1875. His father, William Rathbone Greg
, was an essayist; his mother was the daughter of James Wilson
. As a child, Greg was expected one day to assume editorship of The Economist
, which his grandfather had founded in 1843; Greg was educated at Harrow
and at Trinity College
of Cambridge University
. At Cambridge he met Ronald McKerrow
, whose friendship helped shape Greg's decision to pursue a career in literature. While still in school he compiled a list of Renaissance plays printed before 1700, and he joined the Bibliographical Society
the same year. He was President of the Society from 1930 to 1932 and received its Gold Medal in 1935.
After school, Greg settled into a life of steady productivity, while living on the proceeds of his shares of The Economist. Working in close association with A. H. Bullen, he produced Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama (1906), the first edited version of the account books of Philip Henslowe
(1906-8) and the papers of Edward Alleyn
. The latter two works provided him with a knowledge of Renaissance theatrical conditions perhaps rivaled only by E. K. Chambers, and this knowledge he applied to the publications of the Malone Society
, which he served as general editor between 1906 and 1939. He served as Librarian of Trinity College, 1907-13, resigning after his marriage to his cousin Elizabeth Gaskell. As an independent scholar, Greg produced editions of The Merry Wives of Windsor
(1910), Robert Greene
's Orlando Furioso and George Peele
's The Battle of Alcazar (published together, 1923), and Sir Thomas More
(1911). He returned to specific editing with work on Doctor Faustus
(1950). Greg also wrote on the material conditions of Renaissance theater and publishing; his work in this regard includes Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (1931) and English Literary Autographs, 1550-1650 (1932). The Variants in the First Quarto of King Lear (1940) offered a careful examination of this printing. He also wrote hundreds of reviews, including a notably caustic rejection of J. Churton Collins's 1906 edition of Robert Greene.
At the beginning of World War II
, Greg moved to Sussex
, where he spent the war working on his edition of Faustus. In addition, he began to prepare his great works of the 1950s: The Editorial Problem in Shakespeare (1951), The Shakespeare First Folio: Its Bibliographical and Textual History (1955), Some Aspects and Problems of London Publishing, 1550-1650 (1954), and the essay "The rationale of copy-text" (1950), which had a significant influence on textual criticism
. He was Reader in Bibliography at Oxford University, 1954-5. Greg was knighted in 1950.
Greg was strongly associated with Alfred W. Pollard
in developing a modern understanding of the transmission of Shakespeare's texts. His greatest achievement is A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, published in 4 volumes between 1939 and 1959.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
scholars of the 20th century.
Greg was born at Wimbledon Common
Wimbledon and Putney Commons
Wimbledon Common is a large open space in Wimbledon south-west London, totalling 460 hectares . There are three named areas: Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, and Putney Lower Common which together are managed under the name Wimbledon and Putney Commons...
in 1875. His father, William Rathbone Greg
William Rathbone Greg
William Rathbone Greg was an English essayist.Born in Manchester, the son of Samuel Greg, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill, he was brother to Robert Hyde Greg and the junior Samuel Greg. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. For a time, he managed a mill of his father's at Bury, and in...
, was an essayist; his mother was the daughter of James Wilson
James Wilson (UK politician)
James Wilson was a Scottish businessman, economist and Liberal politician. He founded The Economist and the Standard Chartered Bank.-Early life:...
. As a child, Greg was expected one day to assume editorship of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, which his grandfather had founded in 1843; Greg was educated at Harrow
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
and at Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
of Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. At Cambridge he met Ronald McKerrow
Ronald Brunlees McKerrow
Ronald Brunlees McKerrow was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare scholars of the 20th century.-Life:R.B...
, whose friendship helped shape Greg's decision to pursue a career in literature. While still in school he compiled a list of Renaissance plays printed before 1700, and he joined the Bibliographical Society
Bibliographical Society
Founded in 1892, the Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society dealing with the study of the book and its history, based in London, England....
the same year. He was President of the Society from 1930 to 1932 and received its Gold Medal in 1935.
After school, Greg settled into a life of steady productivity, while living on the proceeds of his shares of The Economist. Working in close association with A. H. Bullen, he produced Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama (1906), the first edited version of the account books of Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance London...
(1906-8) and the papers of Edward Alleyn
Edward Alleyn
Edward Alleyn was an English actor who was a major figure of the Elizabethan theatre and founder of Dulwich College and Alleyn's School.-Early life:...
. The latter two works provided him with a knowledge of Renaissance theatrical conditions perhaps rivaled only by E. K. Chambers, and this knowledge he applied to the publications of the Malone Society
Malone Society
The Malone Society is a British-based scholarly society devoted to the study of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century drama. It publishes editions of plays from manuscript, facsimile editions of printed and manuscript plays of the period, and editions of original documents relating to English...
, which he served as general editor between 1906 and 1939. He served as Librarian of Trinity College, 1907-13, resigning after his marriage to his cousin Elizabeth Gaskell. As an independent scholar, Greg produced editions of The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
(1910), Robert Greene
Robert Greene (16th century)
Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...
's Orlando Furioso and George Peele
George Peele
George Peele , was an English dramatist.-Life:Peele was christened on 25 July 1556. His father, who appears to have belonged to a Devonshire family, was clerk of Christ's Hospital, and wrote two treatises on bookkeeping...
's The Battle of Alcazar (published together, 1923), and Sir Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (play)
Sir Thomas More is a collaborative Elizabethan play by Anthony Munday and others depicting the life and death of Thomas More. It survives only in a single manuscript, now owned by the British Library...
(1911). He returned to specific editing with work on Doctor Faustus
Doctor Faustus
Doctor Faustus could refer to:*The character of Faust*Dr. Johann Georg Faust , widely considered to be an inspiration for the character of Faust....
(1950). Greg also wrote on the material conditions of Renaissance theater and publishing; his work in this regard includes Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (1931) and English Literary Autographs, 1550-1650 (1932). The Variants in the First Quarto of King Lear (1940) offered a careful examination of this printing. He also wrote hundreds of reviews, including a notably caustic rejection of J. Churton Collins's 1906 edition of Robert Greene.
At the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Greg moved to Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, where he spent the war working on his edition of Faustus. In addition, he began to prepare his great works of the 1950s: The Editorial Problem in Shakespeare (1951), The Shakespeare First Folio: Its Bibliographical and Textual History (1955), Some Aspects and Problems of London Publishing, 1550-1650 (1954), and the essay "The rationale of copy-text" (1950), which had a significant influence on textual criticism
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
. He was Reader in Bibliography at Oxford University, 1954-5. Greg was knighted in 1950.
Greg was strongly associated with Alfred W. Pollard
Alfred W. Pollard
Alfred William Pollard was an English bibliographer, widely credited for bringing a higher level of scholarly rigor to the study of Shakespearean texts....
in developing a modern understanding of the transmission of Shakespeare's texts. His greatest achievement is A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, published in 4 volumes between 1939 and 1959.
See also
- Joseph Quincy AdamsJoseph Quincy AdamsJoseph Quincy Adams, Jr. was a prominent Shakespeare scholar and the first director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C....
- G. E. BentleyGerald Eades BentleyGerald Eades Bentley was an American academic and literary scholar, best remembered for his The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, published by Oxford University Press in seven volumes between 1941 and 1968...
- E. K. ChambersEdmund Kerchever ChambersSir Edmund Kerchever Chambers was an English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. His four-volume history of Elizabethan theater, published in 1923, remains a standard resource for scholars of the period's drama....
- R. W. ChambersRaymond Wilson ChambersRaymond Wilson Chambers was a British literary scholar, author, and academic; throughout his career he was associated with University College London .-Life:...
- Andrew GurrAndrew GurrAndrew John Gurr is a contemporary literary scholar who specializes in William Shakespeare and English Renaissance theatre.-Life and work:...
- Alfred HarbageAlfred HarbageAlfred Bennett Harbage was an influential Shakespeare scholar of the mid-20th century. He was born in Philadelphia and received his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He lectured on Shakespeare both there and at Columbia before becoming a professor at Harvard...
- Clifford LeechClifford LeechClifford Leech was a prolifically published British-born professor of English at University College at the University of Toronto 1963-74...
- Kenneth MuirKenneth Muir (scholar)Kenneth Arthur Muir was a twentieth-century literary scholar and author, prominent in the fields of Shakespeare studies and English Renaissance theatre...
- T. M. ParrottThomas Marc ParrottThomas Marc Parrott was a prominent twentieth-century American literary scholar, long a member of the faculty of Princeton University in New Jersey....
- Samuel SchoenbaumSamuel SchoenbaumSamuel Schoenbaum was a leading 20th century Shakespearean biographer and scholar.Born in New York, Schoenbaum taught at Northwestern University from 1953 to 1975, serving for the last four years of this period as the Frank Bliss Snyder Professor of English Literature. He later taught at the City...
- E. M. Thompson
- Charles William WallaceCharles William WallaceCharles William Wallace was an American scholar and researcher, famed for his discoveries in the field of English Renaissance theatre.Wallace was born in Hopkins, Missouri to Thomas Dickay Wallace and Olive McEwen...
- John Dover Wilson