Editorial Introduction

This electronic edition of Thomas Baker’s Tunbridge Walks; or, The Yeoman of Kent is the project of a collaborative graduate seminar at the University of Saskatchewan. The student editors are Karen Hepp, Deborah Leiter, Emily Morris, and Nikoline Thomson. The web interface was designed and prepared by Deborah Leiter. The base text for our edition is the British Library’s copy of the 1703 first edition, the only edition for which Baker is likely to have had any contact with the printer.

The primary goal for this edition was to undertake an exercise in critical editing that would yield a readable and reliable, though not an absolutely authoritative text of a significant play that does not exist in any modern edition. Textual variants were collated vertically (from edition to edition), though not horizontally (within editions), since we had access to electronic reproductions of only one copy of each edition. Textual notes reflecting a small number of emendations are interspersed with the content notes. Complete lists of textual variants (mainly in accidentals) are available from the supervising editor by email at ron.cooley@usask.ca .  In lieu of conjectural scene divisions and lineation, we have elected to number the speeches within each act.

Our edition is intended as a resource for students and scholars. We welcome reproduction for educational and research purposes, provided that the work of the editors is appropriately acknowledged.