The Folger Shakespeare Library

3. Transcription and Annotation

This section examines in greater detail the steps by which Dering and his scribe Carington developed the adaptation of Henry IV. It is a journey that begins with two printed books. Presumably, that journey ended in performance at Surrenden House. However, the material endpoint resides in a document: a manuscript written in two hands and prepared in several stages, a complex artefact in its own right.

At left, the title page of the 1613 edition of 1 Henry IVFolger STC 22284 copy 1. At right, the title page of the 1600 edition of 2 Henry IVFolger STC 22288a copy 1.