SCRIBAL COPY FOR QI RICHARD II?

The article discusses the divided opinions regarding the scribal copy of dramatist William Shakespeare's "Richard II." The article adds that scholars have been undecided as to whether the compositor's copy for the First Quarto (QI) of "Richard II (1597)," consisted of a manuscript (foul or fair) in Shakespeare's hand or was a scribal transcript in the hand of another. The stage directions in QI are authorial in character, and the text is thought to derive directly from Shakespeare's foul papers or from a non-theatrical transcript of them. The relative absence of the inconsistencies, confusions, and Shakespearian spellings associated with foul-paper texts leads to the suspicion that a transcript intervened. Furthermore, the article presents a couple of other views regarding it.