A ‘Certain Text’: Close Readings and Textual Studies on Shakespeare and Others in Honor ofThomas Clayton

This collection in honor of Thomas Clayton takes its title from Romeo and Juliet (4.1.21). Meeting Paris in Friar Lawrence’s cell, Juliet muses, ‘What must be shall be,’ and the Friar completes her line with, ‘That’s a certain text.’ Where ‘text’ means a received truth, both Friar Lawrence and Clayton are interested skeptics. The essays gathered here reflect this attitude, questioning received ideas about the activities to which Clayton has devoted his professional life-literary editing and the close reading of literary works.