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Introduction to the Texts of Hamlet

Printing History of the Three Hamlet Texts

When people refer to "three Hamlet texts," they refer to three separate printings of three separate texts, all of which differ from each other. The texts are known as the "First Quarto," the "Second Quarto" and the "First Folio." The term "quarto" refers to the style of printing used to make the edition. Printing paper in the early modern period was large, and printers made the most of a piece of paper by printing many pages on a single sheet and then folding that sheet into a smaller size. A printer could get up to twelve full pages from a single sheet of paper, and each page would have a front and a back (meaning you would have a total of 24 printed sides in a twelve page book).  A "quarto" is a book made of sheets of paper printed and folded to create four pages per sheet (creating eight printed surfaces per sheet of paper).  Printing in "folio" was more expensive than printing in quarto because a printer could only make two pages (four printed surfaces) out of a single sheet of paper. Printers would charge fees based on the number of sheets of paper they needed to print a book.

The First and Second Quarto were printed during Shakespeare’s lifetime, the Folio after his death by actors he had worked with for the last two decades of his career. Despite a number of complicated theories about the texts’ origins, some of the best and most reliable information for these arguments is found on each printings’ individual title page. The first printing is dated 1603 and the title page reads:



Although it is the earliest of the three printings, Q1 was not known to exist until a copy was discovered in 1823. The text is approximately 2100 lines long, just over half the length of either of the other texts, and includes several fascinating variations: such as the name of the Polonius character, who is called “Corambis” in the First Quarto. Due to the considerable variation between Q1 and the more familiar texts, it has long been speculated that it is either an actor’s attempt to reconstruct the text from memory without access to a full script, or a very early draft by Shakespeare--perhaps for touring since it claims to have been acted at “Cambridge and Oxford and elsewhere.” Regardless of its exact genesis, it does seem reasonable to consider Q1 a representation of what was on stage in London in the early 1600s, and its variations can open up unexpected and exciting staging choices for artists and shed new light on the other texts for scholars.

The Second Quarto of Hamlet was printed during the two years following Q1, 1604-5. It is almost twice as long as Q1 and the longest of the three versions, containing some passages not in either of the other two, most notably an additional soliloquy for Hamlet after he encounters Fortinbras’ army on the way to England. It also lacks certain passages found in the Folio, such as the line calling Denmark a prison: a politic omission in the year following Anne of Denmark’s coronation as Queen of England. Like Q1, Q2 has information about its origin on the title page:


Here, it seems, we have a text printed to capitalize on the plays’ success in the theater by offering a reading audience new material they do not see on stage. The text makes no claims to having been performed, but does claim legitimacy with the statement that it is “according to the True and Perfect Copie.” Whether this means it is an attempt to discredit the earlier printing or not, it is certainly a text for reading, not performing (not in its entirety, at least) and this is evident in several ways within the text. For example, the Q2 text does not include stage directions for the final scene when Gertrude drinks the poison meant for Hamlet and Hamlet, Laertes, and the King are all stabbed with the same poisoned weapon. In Q1 a stage direction reads: “They catch one another’s rapiers and both are wounded. Leartes falls down, the Queen falls down and dies.” The Folio, while not as detailed, still contains a direction for Hamlet and Laertes that clarifies the action: “In scuffling they change rapiers.” It seems that the printers saved space by not including stage directions in this scene in Q2, instead possibly relying on public knowledge of what happens to make the action clear.

Lukas Erne, in Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist, concludes that "Shakespeare became a dramatic author during his own lifetime, writing drama for the stage and the page, to be published in performance and in print. The two media...have left traces in some of the variant play texts: the literariness of the long texts contrasts in certain ways with the theatricality of the short texts, reflecting respectively an emergent culture of increasing literacy and an enduring culture of orality." (244)

Folio

The First Folio text of Hamlet was printed in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death and 18 years after the Second Quarto. The Folio, which contains thirty-six plays attributed to Shakespeare, was compiled and the printing commissioned by John Heminges and Henry Condell, two actors who had worked with Shakespeare in both the Lord Chamberlain’s and King’s Men. The volume’s title page reads:


Because of its similarity to Q2 and the fact that some of Shakespeare’s actors were responsible for the compilation and printing of the Folio- not to mention the similar claims on their title pages- the two later printings are considered authoritative, their differences reflecting edits over time.

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A Brief Guide to Shakespeare’s Language

Terms

Scansion: the rhythm of a line of verse, also called “meter.”

Iamb: a two-syllable metrical device in which the first syllable is unstressed and the second is stressed: de-DUM, as in “a-DIEU,” “im-PRESS,” or “en-TREAT.” Unstressed beats are frequently unmarked or marked with a * when notating a line of verse. Stressed syllables use this symbol: / .

Pentameter: a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet. A foot is two syllables.

Iambic Pentameter: a line of verse made up of five iambs. This is considered a “regular” line in Shakespeare; irregular lines deviate from this pattern.

                                                                *    /   *   /   *    /    *      /        *      /
        Example of a Regular Line:            To be or not to be, ay there’s the point.

        Example of an eleven-syllable          *   /    *    /   *   /      *   /    *     /    *
        (feminine-ended) line:                      To be or not to be, that is the question.



Trochee: a two-syllable metrical device in which the first syllable is stressed and the second is unstressed; the opposite of an iamb. DE-dum, as in “QUES-tion,” “I-dle,” or “HAM-let.”

Alexandrine: a line of verse with six iambic feet and therefore twelve syllables.  

Rhetoric: the use of figures of speech, such as erotema, antimetabole, metaphor, anaphora and others, especially to make speech or writing more persuasive.

"The art of using language so as to persuade or influence others; the body of rules to be observed by a speaker or writer in order that he may express himself with eloquence." (OED)

Scansion frequently helps to determine the pronunciation of words. For example, though we would normally pronounce “persevere” “per-se-VERE,” Shakespeare frequently uses the pronunciation “per-SE-vere.” “Revenue” is similarly scanned “re-VEN-ue” in several instances.  In performance, the director and/or vocal coach would determine pronunciation in cases like these. Some pronunciation differences found in Shakespeare still exist between British and American English speakers.

The best rule to follow with scansion is that the line should be said so that it sounds natural, and the natural sound is frequently more important than following the meter exactly. What the meter can do is help pinpoint important words and thoughts in a line or speech, clarify long sentences and complex thoughts, and in some cases point to important emotional shifts or changes in thought.



Rhetoric is another tool that can help clarify a character’s thoughts and intentions. Figures of speech fall into several categories, but the most common are figures of repetition and figures of comparison. All definitions come from Silva Rhetoricae, hosted by Brigham Young University. (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Silva.htm)

Antithesis is a comparison between two opposing things, and is used frequently when two characters debate, or a single character is debating with him or herself. Antithesis can be direct and contained (“shallow story of deep love”) or extended throughout a speech, such as in Corambis/Polonius’ advice to Laertes:

                         Be thou familiar; but by no meanes vulgar:
                          …
                         Giue euery man thine eare; but few thy voyce:
                         Take each mans censure; but reserue thy iudgement:
                         Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy;
                         But not exprest in fancie; rich, not gawdie: (1.2)

 Erotema- The rhetorical question. To affirm or deny a point strongly by asking it as a question.

 Hamlet uses erotema constantly, especially when alone on stage. In fact, the most famous line in the play is an example:

                        To be, or not to be, that is the Question:
                        Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer
                        The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune,
                        Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles,
                            And by opposing end them:                         (3.1)

                        What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba that he should weep for her?   (2.2)


Hendiadys- Expressing a single idea by two nouns instead of a noun and its qualifier. A method of amplification that adds force. (For a complete survey of this rhetorical figure in relation to  Hamlet see George T. Wright's article "Hendiadys and Hamlet" PMLA. 96:2, 1981)

   

      

      

                     In Hamlet, synecdoche is most frequently used when a character refers to the monarch of a country by the name of the country instead of his title.





Rhyme is something that, like repetition, is intentional and can be a nice tool for performance. Characters who rhyme together are usually closely knit--  Romeo and Juliet when they first meet, for example--and/or have a playful relationship, while other characters rhyme to show off their intelligence. Slant rhymes (words that do not rhyme perfectly, but can when their pronunciation is slightly altered) can be forced to rhyme for comic effect, or ignored to avoid a comic moment. Ex: soon/done; rude/blood; lid/lad.

Rhyming couplets frequently end scenes or mark exits for characters:


They can also possibly indicate an unsuccessful attempt to leave. For example, an attempt to leave is one of several ways in interpret Ophelia’s rhyming couplet in the Nunnery scene:



Pronouns: In Renaissance drama, both our standard pronoun “you” and the more archaic pronoun “thee” are used. Although in general “thee” is the pronoun of intimacy and passionate emotion and “you” is formal and distant, each has so many possibilities uses that it is difficult to assign universal meanings. The following are examples of how they may be used in a text:

“You” is used by characters of lower status to characters of higher status; when characters of similar status use “you,” it may be because they do not know each other well, are being obsequious or polite, or are trying to create distance between themselves and the other person. 


“Thee” is used frequently seen in language between lovers and friends, and characters of higher status to characters of lower status; “thee” also seems be an indicator of strong emotion- love, anger, disdain, happiness, and so on. Used inappropriately, “thee” is an insult because it assumes a greater than merited familiarity with the other person, as though they were a servant. (Freedman)

One of the most important things to notice about pronouns is paying attention to when they change. If a character is using “thee” to someone and suddenly switches to “you,” it means something and can be a helpful thing to emphasize for the audience.