The First Quarto of Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The First Quarto of Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Regular price
Checking stock...
Regular price
Checking stock...
Summary

The first printed text of Shakespeare's Hamlet is about half the length of the more familiar second quarto and Folio versions. It reorders and combines key plot elements to present its own workable alternatives. This is the only modernised, critical edition of the 1603 quarto in print.

The feel-good place to buy books
  • Free delivery in Australia
  • Supporting authors with AuthorSHARE
  • 100% recyclable packaging
  • Proud to be a B Corp – A Business for good
  • Buy-back with Ziffit

The First Quarto of Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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.
Advisory Board:

David Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. A renowned text scholar, he has edited several Shakespeare editions including the Bantam Shakespeare in individual paperback volumes, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, (Longman, 2003), and Troilus and Cressida (Arden, 1998). He teaches courses in Shakespeare, Renaissance Drama, and Medieval Drama.

Barbara Gaines is the founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. She has directed over 25 productions at Chicago Shakespeare, and she serves on the artistic directorate of
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London as well as on Northwestern University's Board of Trustees.

Peter Holland is the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame. One of the central figures in performance-oriented Shakespeare criticism, he has also edited many
Shakespeare plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Oxford Shakespeare series. He is also general editor of Shakespeare Survey and co-general editor (with Stanley Wells) of Oxford Shakespeare Topics.

Contributors:

Professor Douglas Lanier - Douglas Lanier is an Associate Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. His publications include Shakescorp Noir in Shakespeare Quarterly 53.2 (Summer 2002) and Nostalgia and Theatricality in Shakespeare the Movie II (eds. Richard Burt and Lynda Boose, Routledge, 2003), and the book, Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Professor Jill Levenson - Jill L. Levenson is a Professor of English at Trinity College at the University of Toronto. She has written and edited numerous essays and books including Romeo and Juliet for the Manchester University Press's series Shakespeare in Performance (1987), Shakespeare and the Twentieth Century (with Jonathan Bate and Dieter Mehl), and the Oxford edition of Romeo and Juliet (2000). Currently she is writing a book on Shakespeare and modern drama for Shakespeare Topics, a series published by Oxford University Press.

Professor Lois Potter - Lois Potter is Ned B. Allen Professor of English at the University of Delaware. She has also taught in England, France, and Japan, attending and reviewing as many plays as possible. Her publications include the Arden edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen and Othello for the Manchester University Press's series Shakespeare in Performance.

Ms. Janet Suzman - Janet Suzman was trained at LAMDA and is an honorary associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her work there has included The Wars of the Roses, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost, and The Merchant of Venice. She has been awarded numerous honorary degrees and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for her performance in Nicholas and Alexandra. Her acclaimed 1990 direction of Othello in Johannesburg, South Africa is considered to be one of the most powerful productions of the play.

Mr. Andrew Wade - Andrew Wade was Head of Voice for the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1990 - 2003 and Voice Assistant Director from 1987-1990. During this time he worked on 170 productions and with more than 80 directors. Along with Cicely Berry, Andrew recorded Working Shakespeare, the DVD series on Voice and Shakespeare, and he was the verse consultant for the movie Shakespeare In Love. In 2000, he won a Bronze Award from the New York International Radio Festival for the series Lifespan, which he co-directed and devised. He works widely teaching, lecturing and coaching throughout the world.

Marie Macaisa is a lifelong fan of Shakespeare who has seen at least one theatrical production of nearly all his plays (she's waiting for Henry VIII). Her first career, lasting 20 years, was in high tech; she has a B.S. in Computer Science from MIT and a M.S. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Pennsylvania. For the last two years, she has devoted herself to the Sourcebooks Shakespeare Experience.

Dominique Raccah is founder, president and publisher of Sourcebooks. Born in Paris, France, she has a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in quantitative psychology from the University of Illinois. She also serves as series editor of Poetry Speaks and Poetry Speaks to Children.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780521653909
ISBN 10 0521653908
Title The First Quarto of Hamlet
Author William Shakespeare
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Year published 1999-04-13
Number of pages 144
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable