The First Quarto of Hamlet

Rating:
Summary: "To Be Or Not To Be, Ay, There's the Point..."
Review: ...Yep, that's how the line goes in this early, pirated, "bad quarto" edition of the greatest masterwork in the history of English drama, assembled and published on the sly in 1603, probably from the memories of actors who had appeared in the original production of the show. This edition is a cause for non-academic Shakespeare geeks everywhere to rejoice--it's a general-reader's version, highly affordable, copiously annotated, with an intelligent introduction. While no one will ever suggest that this text is on a level with the magnificent First Folio "Hamlet," it still has theatrical merits all its own--a quicker pace, a simpler, less dilatory structure, and, at times, a fiercer, more pungent sense of language: "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" here becomes "Why, what a dunghill idiot slave am I." Reading it gives a fascinating new perspective on the most towering achievement of English-language tragedy.

Rating:
Summary: "To Be Or Not To Be, Ay, There's the Point..."
Review: ...Yep, that's how the line goes in this early, pirated, "bad quarto" edition of the greatest masterwork in the history of English drama, assembled and published on the sly in 1603, probably from the memories of actors who had appeared in the original production of the show. This edition is a cause for non-academic Shakespeare geeks everywhere to rejoice--it's a general-reader's version, highly affordable, copiously annotated, with an intelligent introduction. While no one will ever suggest that this text is on a level with the magnificent First Folio "Hamlet," it still has theatrical merits all its own--a quicker pace, a simpler, less dilatory structure, and, at times, a fiercer, more pungent sense of language: "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" here becomes "Why, what a dunghill idiot slave am I." Reading it gives a fascinating new perspective on the most towering achievement of English-language tragedy.

Rating:
Summary: His father murdered, and a Crown bereft him...
Review: This is - without question - the essential edit of Q1 Hamlet. Ms. Irace presents in the clearest way to date the several arguments for origin, being careful not to tip her hand in any one particular direction. The introduction is a revelation, the annotations are superb and unmatched, and the modernisation of the language is most unobtrusive. This is the kind of work that will inspire and invigorate the artistic and academic masses to accept Q1 not as "the bad quarto," but as an elemental part of the Hamlet legacy...

Rating:
Summary: His father murdered, and a Crown bereft him...
Review: This is - without question - the essential edit of Q1 Hamlet. Ms. Irace presents in the clearest way to date the several arguments for origin, being careful not to tip her hand in any one particular direction. The introduction is a revelation, the annotations are superb and unmatched, and the modernisation of the language is most unobtrusive. This is the kind of work that will inspire and invigorate the artistic and academic masses to accept Q1 not as "the bad quarto," but as an elemental part of the Hamlet legacy...