As a group, we were assigned to assess the similiarities and differences between the Oxford Next and University of Virginia adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and analyze how these distinctions can alter a reader's understanding of the story.
This Etext version of William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Macbeth, is a part of the Electronic Text Center (“Etext” for short) of the University of Virginia Library. At its present state, it has not needed to have been edited since 1998 (more than 10 years!).
There are a few recognizable differences between this and our Oxford Next version. Regarding punctuation, certain commas are omitted, some question marks are added in, and various apostrophes are filled in with letters. Several lines are also altered in the sense that where the Oxford Next version would complete the line, the University of Virginia version inserts a period, then adds the first few words from the next line as a continuation. These details would not make a significant difference in the way that we would understand the story, but possibly would impact how the play is spoken on stage.
In Scene 2, Ross and Angus enter after King Duncan’s line, “Who comes here?”, as opposed to preceding it. This simply creates a small difference in the acting of the play. Other than this instance, stage directions are really not very different.
In terms of the format, there are 3 main distinctions. There is no line count, a double space is inserted between the lines of different characters and the major and minor characters are distinguished in the text by capitalization. Although the double spacing between lines does not make a significant difference in the reading, the absence of the line count would make it much more difficult to follow the text, especially during a discussion, and the different capitalization of the major vs. minor character names helps the reader develop a sense of importance right at the beginning of the play.
The setting of the play is also altered, with the Three Witches introduced in “A desert place” rather than on the battlefield, and “The king’s headquarters” being changed to “A camp near Forres”. A largely noticeable change would be a bleeding Sergeant replacing the bleeding Captain, but only in name. The word “Norwegian” has been reverted back to the more Victorian-era “Norweyan”. The only place where line spacing is an issue is when the Sergeant describes the battle: “Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion […]”.
This Etext version of William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Macbeth, is a part of the Electronic Text Center (“Etext” for short) of the University of Virginia Library. At its present state, it has not needed to have been edited since 1998 (more than 10 years!).
There are a few recognizable differences between this and our Oxford Next version. Regarding punctuation, certain commas are omitted, some question marks are added in, and various apostrophes are filled in with letters. Several lines are also altered in the sense that where the Oxford Next version would complete the line, the University of Virginia version inserts a period, then adds the first few words from the next line as a continuation. These details would not make a significant difference in the way that we would understand the story, but possibly would impact how the play is spoken on stage.
In Scene 2, Ross and Angus enter after King Duncan’s line, “Who comes here?”, as opposed to preceding it. This simply creates a small difference in the acting of the play. Other than this instance, stage directions are really not very different.
In terms of the format, there are 3 main distinctions. There is no line count, a double space is inserted between the lines of different characters and the major and minor characters are distinguished in the text by capitalization. Although the double spacing between lines does not make a significant difference in the reading, the absence of the line count would make it much more difficult to follow the text, especially during a discussion, and the different capitalization of the major vs. minor character names helps the reader develop a sense of importance right at the beginning of the play.
The setting of the play is also altered, with the Three Witches introduced in “A desert place” rather than on the battlefield, and “The king’s headquarters” being changed to “A camp near Forres”. A largely noticeable change would be a bleeding Sergeant replacing the bleeding Captain, but only in name. The word “Norwegian” has been reverted back to the more Victorian-era “Norweyan”. The only place where line spacing is an issue is when the Sergeant describes the battle: “Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion […]”.
The distinctions would not significantly affect a reader’s understanding of the play itself, but some of these changes would impact how the play is to be performed. Because it has been used for over 10 years without any major editing, our group considers this resource to be reliable, relevant and lasting. Therefore, we find it to be a good resource for Grade 9 students studying Macbeth.
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