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Hamlet

Most famous play in the English language

The playwright Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is without question the most famous play in the English language. Probably written in 1601 or 1602, the tragedy is a milestone in Shakespeare's dramatic development.
Hamlet achieved artistic maturity in this work through his brilliant depiction of the hero's struggle with two opposing forces: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father's murder.
Hamlet may be the most frequently produced work in almost every western country, and it is considered a crucial test for mature actors. Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy (Act Three, Scene One), the most popular passage in the play, is so well known that it has become a stumbling-block for many modern actors.

Hamlet Quotes

First Folio of 1623

The First Folio of 1623 is the definitive edition of Shakespeare's plays. It is more often than not the closest we can now get to what Shakespeare actually wrote. But the folio's antiquated typography and cramped layout make it remote and inaccessible to modern eyes.
The Shakespeare Folios on the other hand offer easy access directly to the First Folio by presenting the text in modern type but otherwise unchanged. All the First Folio's idiosyncrasies of layout and spelling, even its obvious errors, have been scrupulously left intact, but the text suddenly becomes as easily legible as the script of any modern play.
Now readers can see for themselves what the Folio actually says: whether and where there are stage directions; where the punctuation falls; and exactly how the speeches are set out line by line. And they can make up their own minds about the problematic words and phrases that have puzzled generations of Shakespeare scholars.

Modern edition

As an additional aid to understanding, readers will find, printed opposite each page of the Folio, the very same passage in a modern edition. So, whenever the Folio presents a problem, the reader can refer to this parallel text for a solution, either in the text itself or in the set of notes at the end of the book. These notes draw on the long tradition of Shakespearean scholarship and include full reference to surviving Quarto texts.
Using these two versions of the play in parallel - one thoroughly authentic, the other carefully modernized - readers, be they students or scholars, actors or directors, theatregoers or Shakespeare specialists, can achieve an unprecedented understanding of one of the most significant works in the history of English literature.
Hamlet: Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare and Sylvan Barnet (Editor)
ISBN: 0451526929, Signet Classics

Extensively annotated version of Hamlet

One of the most frequently read and performed of all stage works, Shakespeare's Hamlet is unsurpassed in its complexity and richness. Now the most extensively annotated version of Hamlet to date makes the play completely accessible to readers in the twenty-first century. It has been carefully assembled with students, teachers, and the general reader in mind.

Help with vocabulary and usage of Elizabethan English

Eminent linguist and translator Burton Raffel offers generous help with vocabulary and usage of Elizabethan English, pronunciation, prosody, and alternative readings of phrases and lines. His on-page annotations provide readers with all the tools they need to comprehend the play and begin to explore its many possible interpretations. This version of Hamlet is unparalleled for its thoroughness and adherence to sound historical linguistics. In his introduction, Burton Raffel offers important background on the origins and previous versions of the Hamlet story, along with an analysis of the characters Hamlet and Ophelia. And in a concluding essay, Harold Bloom meditates on the originality of Shakespeare's achievement. The book also includes a careful selection of items for further reading.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare and editors Burton Raffel, David Bevington, James Hammersmith, David Scott Kastan, and Robert Kean Turner
ISBN: 0553212923, Bantam Books

Hamlet

William Shakespeare's original poetic phrases are printed side-by-side and line-by-line with the modern translation on each facing page. While Shakespeare's immortal plays have endured, the English language has changed - which is why today's students often find William Shakespeare's idiom difficult to comprehend.
Hamlet
ISBN: 074347712X