# Looking for a Word - Original, Authentic Version of a Play

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-word-original-authentic-version-of-a-play/727516>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-word-original-authentic-version-of-a-play/727516 "2015-08-11T02:16:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-word-original-authentic-version-of-a-play/727516/21 "2015-08-14T14:48:43Z")

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> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> But the word, particularly in the performing arts and depending on culture and time, could be suspect unless qualified: the “original text” of a Shakespeare play, say, may never be known, as there may never have been one, and Shakespeare would have understood that inevitability.

Just to follow up on this point, for some if Shakespeare’s plays there are substantial variations between the quarto and the folio versions, with one version sometimes longer than the other.

One possible explanation is that the longer version was used at the Globe in London, but the shorter version was used by Shakespeare’s theatre company on tour in the country, with a necessarily smaller cast.

If Shakespeare himself was involved in preparing both versions, how is it possible to say one is the ur-version?

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