The New Hudson Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
ROWE'S EDITIONS
In the Folios and in the Quarto of 1691 the play is divided into acts, but not into scenes, though the first act is headed _Actus Primus, Scæna Prima_. The first systematic division into scenes was made by Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate to George I, in the edition which he issued in six octavo volumes in 1709. In this edition Rowe, an experienced playwright, marked the entrances and exits of the characters and introduced many stage directions and the list of dramatis personæ which has been the basis for all later lists. A second edition in eight volumes was published in 1714. Rowe followed very closely the text of the Fourth Folio, but modernized spelling, punctuation, and occasionally grammar. These are the first critical editions of Shakespeare's plays.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.