| Chapter : | Introduction |
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substantive readings, however, the textual scholar should use his/her critical skills because “the choice between substantive readings belongs to the general theory of textual criticism and lies altogether beyond the narrow principle of the copy-text” (48). The result is the formation of an eclectic but stable text:
Fredson Bowers' theoretical works amplify Greg's theory and clarify his ideas concerning the use of the first edition as copy-text. Bowers asserts that the purpose of Greg's theory is not to exclude earlier authorial manuscripts for use as copy-texts, but to keep scholars from assuming that a later edition is more authoritative than an earlier edition. Bowers, like Greg, argues that the copy-text should be that which most closely reproduces the author's original words, usually one that is “set directly from manuscript, or a later edition that contains corrections or revisions that proceeded from the author” (195). Also, like Greg, he states that once the copy-text is established, the textual scholar should differentiate between accidentals and substantives, constructing “[a]n eclectic text…which combines the superior authority of most of the words of the revised edition with the superior authority of the forms of words of the first edition” (195). G. Thomas Tanselle, a later proponent of Greg and Bowers, explains: