Foul papers

The term is most often used in the study of the plays of Shakespeare and other dramatists of English Renaissance drama.

Once the composition of a play was finished, a transcript or "fair copy" of the foul papers was prepared, by the author or by a scribe.

W. W. Greg and Fredson Bowers define them as "the author's last complete draft, in a shape satisfactory to him for transfer to a fair copy".

Of the relatively small number of dramas that are extant in manuscript,[5] the majority are from the Caroline and Cromwellian era (1625–1660) rather than the Elizabethan and Jacobean era (1558–1625), and most are fair copies of plays by professional scribes like Ralph Crane.

[6] In a rare direct reference to foul papers and fair copies, Robert Daborne mentions both in a November 1613 letter to theatrical manager Philip Henslowe: "I send you the foul sheet and the fair I was writing",[7] which appears to indicate that Daborne prepared a fair copy of his working drafts as he wrote.