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Ravenscroft’s Preface reflects the precipitous drop in the popularity of Titus Andronicus, now seen as “a heap of Rubbish,” needing revision to be made acceptable.

Page 10: Ravenscroft’s greater focus on Aaron the Moor reveals how compelling Shakespeare’s villain remained. Here, Tamora showily presents Aaron for Saturninus’s approval
Page 11: Aaron discusses the invisibility of his blushes. Later in the play,…

“Selfe flattery of her beautie”: Benson’s headings sometimes imply that the poem’s object of desire is female, when generally scholars assume that the bulk of the sonnets are addressed to a male beloved. Here Benson combines sonnets 115-117 under…

In reprinting sonnet 108, Benson changes the text of the poem, replacing the poem’s address to the beloved as “sweet boy” with address to a “sweet-love,” removing the reference to a male beloved.

Nesbit emphasizes the difficulty of the task and the children’s need for narrative, rather than Shakespeare’s distinctive language. For grown-up Nesbit, “the stories are the least part of Shakespeare.”

Nesbit’s introduction presents a rationale for prose adaptations in the guise of depicting her children’s reproachful bafflement by the difficulty of Shakespeare’s language.

"Epitaph" on Shakespeare by John Milton (unnamed)

Catalogue of Plays (left) and first page of The Tempest (right)