 The superior Q2 called the play The Most Excellent and <unk> <unk> of Romeo and Juliet . It was printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert <unk> . Q2 is about 800 lines longer than Q1 . Its title page describes it as " Newly corrected , augmented and amended " . Scholars believe that Q2 was based on Shakespeare 's pre @-@ performance draft ( called his foul papers ) , since there are textual oddities such as variable tags for characters and " false starts " for speeches that were presumably struck through by the author but erroneously preserved by the typesetter . It is a much more complete and reliable text , and was reprinted in 1609 ( Q3 ) , 1622 ( Q4 ) and 1637 ( Q5 ) . In effect , all later <unk> and Folios of Romeo and Juliet are based on Q2 , as are all modern editions since editors believe that any deviations from Q2 in the later editions ( whether good or bad ) are likely to arise from editors or compositors , not from Shakespeare . 
