This lecture asks what exactly it is we’re reading when we read modern editions of Shakespeare’s plays. Introducing the earliest editions of some of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays, it considers the relationship between writing, performance, and print in Shakespeare’s time. The lecture goes on to explain the kinds of decisions, interventions, and changes that modern editors of Shakespeare’s plays make. Examples are taken from Hamlet, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet, but this lecture is relevant to the study of any Shakespeare play.