Arden Shakespeare Arden Shakespeare The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been three distinct series of the Arden Shakespeare over the past century, and the third series has not yet been completed. Arden was the maiden name of Shakespeare's mother, Mary, but the primary reference of the enterprise's title is named after the Forest of Arden, in which Shakespeare's "As You Like It" is set. The first series was published by Methuen. Its first
The Plays of William Shakespeare August 1765. However, he was unable to work on the "Preface" until August and it was not printed until 29 September. George Steevens volunteered to help Johnson work on the "Preface" during this time. Johnson's edition of "Shakespeare's plays" was finally published on 10 October 1765 as "The Plays of William Shakespeare, in Eight Volumes ... To which are added Notes by Sam. Johnson" in a printing of 1,000 copies. The edition sold quickly and a second edition was soon printed, with an expanded edition to follow in 1773 and a further revised edition in 1778. There are four components