Table of Contents
List of illustrations General editors preface Preface INTRODUCTION
The challenges of Hamlet -
The challenge of acting Hamlet -
The challenge of editing Hamlet -
The challenge to the greatness of Hamlet: Hamlet versus Lear
Hamlet in our time -
The soliloquies and the modernity of Hamlet -
Hamlet and Freud -
Reading against the Hamlet tradition Hamlet in Shakespeare's time
- Hamlet at the turn of the century - The challenge of dating Hamlet -
Was there an earlier Hamlet play? -
Are there any early references to Shakespeare's play? -
Can we date Hamlet in relation to other contemporary plays? -
Hamlet's first performances The story of Hamlet -
Murder most foul -
An antic disposition -
Sentences, speeches and thoughts The composition of Hamlet -
The quartos and the Folio -
The quartos -
The First Folio -
The relationship of Q2 to Q1 -
The relationship of F to Q2 -
What, then, of Q1? -
Editorial practice -
Why a three-text edition? Hamlet on stage and screen -
Hamlet and his points -
Enter the director -
Hamlet and politics Novel Hamlets -
Hamlet meets Fielding, Goethe, Dickens and others -
Hamlet and women novelists -
Prequels and sequels The continuing mystery of Hamlet THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK (The Second Quarto, 1604-5) Appendix 1: Folio-only passages Appendix 2: Textual discussion Appendix 3: Editorial conventions, sample edited passages and a comparison of scenes across the three texts Appendix 4: The act division at 3.4/4.1 Appendix 5: Casting Appendix 6: MusicAbbreviations and references
Abbreviations used in notes
Works by and partly by Shakespeare
Editions of Shakespeare collated
Other works cited Index