The textual transmission and integrity of Shakespeare’s plays was a topic often found quite literally in the margins of copies of the Works.  Here, the Shakespeare scholar Edmond Malone can be seen at work annotating correcting his 1821 edition of the Works, in this annotated copy and set of page proofs.

Malone’s notes and annotated copy of Shakespeare, collected by James Boswell the Younger, Gen MSS 89, Box 176, Folder 3109.  This section of the archive (and in fact the papers of James Boswell in their entirety) has been scanned and can be found in the Beinecke Digital Collections on the Beinecke Library web-site. From the Boswell Collection, General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University