The Oxford Shakespeare was first printed. This resulted in many controversial choices: for example, presenting "Hamlet" with several famous speeches relegated to appendices on the grounds that Shakespeare added them after the original performances; presenting two separate texts of "King Lear" due to the drastic differences between the two extant texts; and changing the name of Falstaff in "Henry IV Part One" to 'Oldcastle' due to historical evidence that this name was used in the first performances even though it never survived to print. The Oxford "Complete Works" was the first to emphasize Shakespeare's collaborative work, describing "Macbeth", "Measure for Measure" and "Timon
John Shakespeare John Shakespeare John Shakespeare (c. 1531 – 7 September 1601) was the father of William Shakespeare. He was the son of Richard Shakespeare of the Warwickshire village of Snitterfield, a farmer . He moved to Stratford-upon-Avon and married Mary Arden, with whom he had eight children, five of whom survived into adulthood. A well-to-do glover and whittawer (leather worker) by trade, Shakespeare was a dealer in hides and wool, and was elected to several municipal offices, serving as an alderman and culminating in a term as bailiff, the chief magistrate of the town council, and Mayor of Stratford in 1568,