I

Between 1773 and 1791 three editions of Shakespeare’s plays appeared, two published by John Bell and one by the less familiar partnership of Bellamy and Robarts. Bell’s editions have become known as the ‘Acting’ and ‘Literary’ editions, the first using the prompt-books from Drury Lane or Covent Garden as their texts, the latter placing itself firmly in the tradition of textual scholarship. The Bellamy and Robarts edition is largely unknown, receiving little comment in historical studies of textual editing. All were sold both as serial parts and as complete volumes, Bell’s in several forms, variously containing scenes from the plays and portraits of actors in character, the Bellamy and Robarts with two scenes for each play.

All contribute to a progressive and highly significant change in the placing of engravings, and consequently in the reader’s experience of the plays. The first Bell edition, unusual in being available in the publisher’s own binding, placed the engravings as frontispieces. Increasingly, however, those copies bound by their purchasers placed the images within the texts of the plays, a practice aided by the sale of the images independent of the volumes. The result is that the ‘Acting’ edition exists in several different forms. Scenes and portraits are bound as frontispieces, within the body of the text, or as dual frontispieces, resulting in different meanings when considered as part of the larger reading experience. This change of location was soon taken up by the publishers: Bell’s ‘Literary’ edition included a sheet giving the page numbers within the text where the engravings should appear, and Bellamy and Robarts followed suit. Thereafter, the inclusion of images opposite the action they depict became commonplace, and the relation between word and image was accordingly redefined.