A sheet of what some consider to be Christopher Marlowe's foul papers. It contains lines from his play The Massacre at Paris (1593). Reproduced from Folger Shakespeare Library Ms.J.b.8
Foul papers are an author's working drafts. The term is most often used in the study of the plays of Shakespeare and other dramatists of English Renaissance drama. Once the composition of a play was finished, a transcript or "fair copy" of the foul papers was prepared, by the author or by a scribe.
The term "foul papers" is given different definitions by various scholars. For example, some define them as "the author's original drafts". W. W. Greg and Fredson Bowers define them as "the author's last complete draft, in a shape satisfactory to him for transfer to a fair copy".[1][2] E. A. J. Honigmann defines them as "any kind of draft preceding the first fair copy".[3] Paul Werstine states that foul papers "need not refer exclusively to authorial drafts", and that the term "simply describes papers that are to be, are being, or have already been transcribed", and that foul papers may once have been fair copies.[4]
Few sets of foul papers actually exist from the era in question. Of the relatively small number of dramas that are extant in manuscript,[5] the majority are from the Caroline and Cromwellian era (1625–1660) rather than the Elizabethan and Jacobean era (1558–1625), and most are fair copies of plays by professional scribes like Ralph Crane.[6]
In a rare direct reference to foul papers and fair copies, Robert Daborne mentions both in a November 1613 letter to theatrical manager Philip Henslowe: "I send you the foul sheet and the fair I was writing",[7] which appears to indicate that Daborne prepared a fair copy of his working drafts as he wrote.
^Greg, W. W. The Editorial Problem in Shakespeare. Oxford University Press (1954)
^Bowers, Fredson. On Editing Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Dramatists. University of Pennsylvania Library. (1955)
^Honigmann, E. A. J. The Stability of Shakespeare's Texts. University of Nebraska Press (1965) p 17. ISBN 0-7131-5184-6
^Werstine, Paul. Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press (2013). p. 98 ISBN 978-1-107-02042-9
^E. K. Chambers provides an extensive (though not exhaustive) list of fifty plays and masques in manuscript or manuscript fragments Chambers 1923, vol. 4, pp. 404–406.
^See: A Game at Chess;Sir John van Olden Barnavelt.
^Spelling, punctuation modernized (Chambers 1923, vol. 3, p. 194; Halliday 1964, p. 174).
Foulpapers are an author's working drafts. The term is most often used in the study of the plays of Shakespeare and other dramatists of English Renaissance...
research. The term foulpapers refers to Shakespeare's working drafts of a play. When completed, a transcript or fair copy of the foulpapers would be prepared...
quartos, the texts were set into type from the author's working drafts or "foulpapers" rather than from "fair copies" of the finished texts or from theatrical...
that Q2 was based on Shakespeare's pre-performance draft (called his foulpapers) since there are textual oddities such as variable tags for characters...
draft thereof, known as his foulpapers), or from a scribal copy or prompt copy derived from the manuscript or foulpapers. The concept of the bad quarto...
copy must have been a difficult-to-read transcript of Shakespeare's "foulpapers" (i.e. first drafts). M. R. Ridley in 1958, rejecting Walker's argument...
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Doran's idea that the Quarto may have been printed from Shakespeare's foulpapers, and that the Folio may have been printed from a promptbook prepared...
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t e Early editions of William Shakespeare's works Folios and quartos Foulpapers List of Shakespeare plays in quarto Quarto Folio Bad quarto First Quarto...
scholars speculate that it derives from Shakespeare's own draft, or "foulpapers", since it contains minor errors in speech labels and stage directions...
stated reasons, although it is a time-consuming process. Draft (music) Foulpapers Manuscript format Rough ASCII Sketch (drawing), a similar concept, but...
performances had been lost, and that he had re-copied the author's "foulpapers" into the existing manuscript. Knight, however, was unable to transcribe...
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ISBN 978-1-60078-797-3. http://web.mit.edu/~xsdg/Public/papers/himcm-2003.pdf "The width is the distance between foul poles... the Twins’ field width (473.9 ft) and...
when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point...
play, suggesting that the text was set into type from the authors' "foulpapers" or working draft. The name conflict would have been corrected in the...
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out, Avinash injures her, slipping her into coma. Anju and Priya suspect foul play. This leads to Priya discovering that Shalini is being poisoned. In...
1786) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer. He earned the nickname "Foul-Weather Jack" in the press because of his frequent encounters with bad weather...
the left-field foul line and the right-field foul line, or the third-base foul line and first-base foul line, respectively. The foul poles on the outfield...