Editing Textual criticism (section)

=== McKerrow's concept of copy-text ===

The bibliographer [[Ronald B. McKerrow]] introduced the term ''copy-text'' in his 1904 edition of the works of [[Thomas Nashe]], defining it as "the text used in each particular case as the basis of mine". McKerrow was aware of the limitations of the stemmatic method, and believed it was more prudent to choose one particular text that was thought to be particularly reliable, and then to emend it only where the text was obviously corrupt. The French critic [[Joseph Bédier]] likewise became disenchanted with the stemmatic method, and concluded that the editor should choose the best available text, and emend it as little as possible.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

In McKerrow's method as originally introduced, the copy-text was not necessarily the earliest text. In some cases, McKerrow would choose a later witness, noting that "if an editor has reason to suppose that a certain text embodies later corrections than any other, and at the same time has no ground for disbelieving that these corrections, or some of them at least, are the work of the author, he has no choice but to make that text the basis of his reprint".<ref>Quoted in Greg 1950, pp.  23–24</ref>

By 1939, in his ''Prolegomena for the Oxford Shakespeare'', McKerrow had changed his mind about this approach, as he feared that a later edition{{mdash}}even if it contained authorial corrections{{mdash}}would "deviate more widely than the earliest print from the author's original manuscript". He therefore concluded that the correct procedure would be "produced by using the earliest 'good' print as copy-text and inserting into it, from the first edition which contains them, such corrections as appear to us to be derived from the author". But, fearing the arbitrary exercise of editorial judgment, McKerrow stated that, having concluded that a later edition had substantive revisions attributable to the author, "we must accept all the alterations of that edition, saving any which seem obvious blunders or misprints".<ref>McKerrow 1939. pp. 17–18, quoted in Greg 1950, p. 25</ref>