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 Shakespeares 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 Shakespeares play?
Can we date Hamlet in relation to other contemporary plays?
Hamlets 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 ofF 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)
Appendices
1 Folio-only passages
2 The nature of the texts
The early printed texts
The early quartos
The First Folio
The quartos and folios after 1623
Modern editors at work
The written text
The performed text
The printed text
The multiple text
A common position?
Our procedure as editors of Hamlet Determining transmission
Editorial principles Lineation and punctuation
Textual tables
3 Editorial conventions and sample passages
Conventions
Proper names
Act and scene numbers
Commentary
Textual notes
Sample passages
4 The act division at 3.4/4.1
The editorial tradition
The theatrical tradition
Our decisions for the new Arden Hamlet
5 Casting
6 Music
Abbreviations and references
Abbreviations used in notes
Works by and partly by Shakespeare
Editions of Shakespeare collated
Other works cited
Index