It has helped to publicize the apparently fully dastardly termination by the Arden Shakespeare of Patricia Parker as editor of the third series Midsummer Night’s Dream, an edition I am not alone in anticipating with the greatest eagerness.

The list of names on the petition to reverse this termination, perpetrated by the private firm Cengage, which now manages the publication of the Ardens, reads as a who’s-who in early modern studies. (Most amusingly, Gary Taylor writes succinctly that he has “written to the editors” at Cengage — how genuinely, and yet humorously, menacing!) As well it should read: Parker is a scholar of the highest order, and I can only imagine that her work on this edition meets, if not excels, the high standards of intelligence, creativity, precision, and integrity she has set throughout her career. I sincerely hope she will be reinstated, and that the Cengage brass will hang their faces in shame as they offer her their most profound apologies.

If Parker’s account of her relationship with the editors at Cengage is accurate, and I can’t believe we have any reason to doubt it, her termination not only smacks of poor ethics but casts doubt on the integrity of the entire enterprise of the Arden Shakespeare — which, as anyone who has ever taught from one of their editions or used one for research knows, constitutes a serious blow to the field of Shakespeare studies.

The scandal further raises a number of questions about the state of academic publishing, most of which I am not remotely prepared to address – I do hope it will raise those questions to a visible level of broad discussion. Meanwhile, assess the thing for yourself using the links above, and then sign the petition.

[I am amazed to find that I already have a "misadventures in editorship" tag -- how convenient.]