thumb|right|upright=1.8|The title page from the First Folio, printed in 1623 The superior Q2 called the play The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet. It was printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert Burby. 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 Quartos 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 have arisen from editors or compositors, not from Shakespeare.
thumb|right|upright=18|The title page from the First Folio printed in 1623 The superior Q2 called the play The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet It was printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert Burby 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 Quartos 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 have arisen from editors or compositors not from Shakespeare