In reviewing the several editions of Shakespeare's plays that we will be studying this semester in English 382, it seems consistently true that the target audience is inclusive of a college-level student and above; that is, those who are already Shakespeare scholars and those who are working towards becoming Shakespeare scholars. This is immediately evidenced by the language used in the included material--it would be tedious to get through for those with only a fundamental knowledge of Shakespeare and/or the English language. When we examine the content of the extra materials we also find that much of it is highly detailed and specific in nature, which is significantly less likely to appeal to the average student--high school or college aged--who is not studying Shakespeare or similar subjects. If, for example, you were reading Shakespeare because it was required for you to gain an English credit on your way to a non-English-related degree, you may find some of the extra materials vaguely interesting but most likely you would not think to read them at all. The background/contextual materials in these editions are very much catered to the type of student who would read these extra materials whether they were assigned readings or not.
Although we reserve the right to change our minds, we as a group are considering the possibility of catering our Shakespeare edition to a high-school audience. High-school students focus more broadly on multiple areas of study rather than in detail on one area of study. In compiling an edition for this audience we could pull material more widely that related to multiple different subjects and contexts rather than being confined to the more in-depth specifics of only one area of study.
