If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns
the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be the Applause
Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio,
it is this edition, set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is
the source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine
the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred
years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to
subsequent editorial interventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity
of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between
Folios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries of Shakespearean
glossing has by now glossed over the original countenance of
Shakespeare's work. While other complete Folio editions continue to
trade simply on the facsimile appearance of the Elizabethan "look " none
of them is easily and practically utilized in general Shakespeare
studies or performances.