The First Two Quartos of Hamlet

The First Two Quartos of Hamlet
Author: Margrethe Jolly
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-07-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 147661556X

It is nearly two centuries since the first quarto of Hamlet was rediscovered, yet there is still no consensus about its relationship to the second quarto. Indeed, the first quarto, the least frequently read Hamlet, has been dismissed as "corrupt," "inferior" or like "a mutilated corpse," even though in performance it has been described as "the absolute dynamo behind the play." Currently one hypothesis dominates explanations about the quartos' interrelationship, supposing that the first quarto (published 1603) was reconstructed from memory by one or more actors who had performed minor roles in a version of the second quarto (published 1604-5). The present study reports on a detailed linguistic reassessment of the principal arguments for memorial reconstruction. The evidence--including a three way comparison between the underlying French source in Les Histoires Tragiques and the two quartos, and the informal features and specific grammatical aspects, and a documented memorial reconstruction in 1779--does not support the dominant hypothesis. The cumulative evidence suggests that the earliest scholars to examine the first quarto were right: the 1603 Hamlet came first, and the second quarto is a substantial, later revision.

The First Quarto of Romeo and Juliet

The First Quarto of Romeo and Juliet
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 3
Release: 2007-02-15
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0521821215

A full edition of the first quarto of Romeo and Juliet (1597), with helpful commentary.

Hamlet - The First Quarto (Sos)

Hamlet - The First Quarto (Sos)
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1317867130

The first in a series on Shakespeare's original texts, including facsimile pages, this version of "Hamlet" is claimed to be, in some ways, the most authentic version of the play that we have. Included are an introduction, notes, and a theoretical, historical and contextual critique. This text has been rejected by scholars as a "bad Quarto" - corrupt and pirated text printed without the permission of the playwright or his company. Nonetheless, it was the first version of the play to be published and it has been produced in the modern theatre with success. This new edition of that Quarto seeks to acknowledge the play's distinctive poetic and dramatic qualities, instead of comparing them unfavourably to one of the other versions.

Hamlet (First Quarto)

Hamlet (First Quarto)
Author:
Publisher: Anaphora Literary Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2023-05-02
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1681145685

The censored satirical or “bad” version of the “Shakespeare” classic that features a homosexual affair between Hamlet and Horatio, and Ofelia’s deflowering to feign heterosexual normalcy. The standard summary of Hamlet describes it as a “tragedy” about a “mad” or “tormented” Prince of Denmark, who follows the solicitation of the Ghost of his assassinated father to revenge-murder his incestuous and homicidal uncle Claudius. The commentary that accompanies this never-before fully-modernized First Quarto of Hamlet explains how it was initially designed to be a satire that diverged from Saxo Grammaticus’ Danish History where Amleth pretends to be mad not only to execute revenge but also to successfully win the crown from his uncle. The First Quarto subtracts any desire for the crown from Hamlet, and instead subversively explains that Hamlet is motivated to feign madness and to deflower Ofelia to disguise his outlawed homosexual love for Horatio. Hamlet makes no direct expressions of attraction towards Ofelia’s beauty. And in the resolution, Horatio offers to poison himself to death when he learns Hamlet is dying. The satirical perspective of this history is especially apparent in the cemetery scene where the Clown 1 gravedigger sifts through a mass-grave to help Hamlet find a dried skull among those that are still decomposing. The heavy re-write between the 1603 and 1604 editions of Hamlet also help to show Percy’s re-writing habit that confirms the attribution to him of diverging versions of anonymous and then “Shakespeare”-bylined versions of Leir/ Lear, and Tragedy of/ Richard III. “Hamlet: The First Quarto is an iconoclastic, unique, informative, and inherently interesting study that is highly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Literary Studies collections in general, and supplemental curriculum Shakespearean Studies lists in particular. It is volume twelve of the simply outstanding British Renaissance Re-Attribution and Modernization Series from Anaphora Literary Press. Ably translated by academician Anna Faktorovich, Hamlet: The First Quarto will have a particular interest and value for Shakespearean scholars and students, as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the subject.” —Midwest Book Review, James Cox, February 2022 Exordium Plot and Staging Segments from “Book Three” and “Book Four” of Saxo Grammaticus’ The Danish History Introduction to the 1825 Edition by William Nicol Introduction to the 1860 Edition by Samuel Timmins Text Terms, References, Questions, Exercises

A Synoptic Hamlet: a Critical-Synoptic Edition of the Second Quarto and First Folio Texts of Hamlet

A Synoptic Hamlet: a Critical-Synoptic Edition of the Second Quarto and First Folio Texts of Hamlet
Author: Jesús Tronch-Pérez
Publisher: Universitat de València
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2002
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9788437053813

A Synoptic Hamlet is an alternative response to the editorial problems of this multiple-text play. Like most critical editions, it presents the early texts in a manner helpful to the general reader by modernizing spelling and punctuation, and emending non-sensical readings. However, it does not hide the text’s diversity by exclusively selecting readings from either the Second Quarto or the First Folio in order to reconstruct a single-reading version corresponding to the authentic Hamlet. Rather, it makes their significant variants immediately available in the line itself (offering alternative editorial interpretations of identical or similar readings at certain points). Thus the reader can have a direct appreciation of the divergence and similarity between these early texts from which the Hamlet of today is known.

The First Quarto of Hamlet

The First Quarto of Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 1998
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780521653909

The first quarto of Hamlet is radically different from the second quarto and Folio versions of the play, and about half their length. But despite its uneven verbal texture and simpler characterisation, the first quarto presents its own workable alternatives to the longer texts, reordering and combining key plot elements, and even including a unique scene between Horatio and the Queen. This new critical edition is designed for students, scholars and actors who are intrigued by the first printed text of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Although the first quarto has been reprinted many times, there is no other modernised edition in print. Irace's introduction outlines views of its origins, its special features, and its surprisingly rich performance history; her textual notes point out differences between the first quarto and the longer second quarto and Folio versions and offer alternatives which actors or directors might choose for specific productions.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Associated University Presse
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2008
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780874130386

Using this text, the reader may see at once how Shakespeare's manuscript of the play, upon which the second quarto is based, was adapted for the Elizabethan stage by the playwright and/or his colleagues.