Shakespeare Study: The Three Versions Of Hamlet

Recently, the Independent Shakespeare Company’s Iambic Lab focused on Hamlet, this year’s theme being “Hamlet, The Undiscovered Country.” One evening was dedicated to the First Quarto version, the so-called “Bad Quarto.” That got me even more interested in the different versions of the plays, so I made a few purchases. Here is what I’ve been reading this week.

Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 And 1623 by William Shakespeare – This is a volume in The Arden Shakespeare Third Series, and was edited by Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. It contains edited texts of the Q1 and Folio versions of the play. It is offered as a companion to The Arden Shakespeare Hamlet volume that contains Q2, and the editors assume readers of this book also have that one. Regarding differences in punctuation, the editors write, “Anthony Graham-White has observed that F adopts more complex punctuation than the quartos, not only because of its wish to be ‘literary’ but because punctuation had become more sophisticated by 1623 – particularly in relation to the intermediate marks, the colon and the semicolon” (p. 8). This volume attempts to limit emendations as much as possible. Regarding performing Q1, the editors write: “It is not hard to see why Q1 should be attractive to performers. It is fast, plot-driven and far less ruminative than the other texts. Its emotions are raw rather than mediated and it is more of an ensemble piece, not a showcase for a single star performer” (p. 16). Notes are contained at the bottom of each page, and there is a full page of notes regarding the character list. The note on the character of Hamlet in Q1 reads: “The hero is apparently a younger character in Q1 than in Q2/F, since in Scene 16 the Gravedigger tells us that Yorick’s skull has been in the ground ‘this dozen year’ (86) rather than ‘three and twenty years’ and omits the reference to Hamlet having been born 30 years ago; the implication is that he is now about 18. In addition to the stress on his youth in scenes 3 and 5, in the closet scene (Scene 11) Corambis refers to him as ‘young Hamlet’ (1) and the Queen addresses him as ‘boy’ (10)” (p. 43). A note regarding the second scene reads: “The King is more dominant questioning Hamlet in Q1; the Queen plays a larger part in Q2/F” (p. 55). The note regarding the King’s use of the world “adulterous” in the scene where he prays reads: “In Q2/F the King does not refer specifically to adultery; he concentrates on the murder, though he mentions the Queen as one of the ‘effects for which I did the murther’” (p. 127). This, to me, hints that their relationship began before the murder. The note regarding Hamlet’s line “but first we’ll make all safe” to his mother reads: “i.e. make sure we are not interrupted or overheard. In a piece of staging unique to Q1, Hamlet presumably makes some gesture towards checking or locking the door” (p. 129). Another note regarding the Hamlet/Gertrude scene reads: “This suggestion – that the Queen can compensate for her fault in marrying her murdered husband’s brother by helping her son to kill the murderer – is also unique to Q1” (p, 135). There are somewhat fewer notes to the Folio version contained in this volume. Regarding Hamlet’s line “Hold off your hand,” a note reads: “F’s singular hand perhaps implies that Hamlet is struggling with one of his companions while the other looks on, while Q2’s plural implies they are both trying to restrain him” (p. 208). The F reading is “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.” I only came across “our” recently, and thought it might be a misprint, because every version I’d read and seen previously used the word “your” there. A note on that line reads: “Norton notes that Hamlet is ‘still trying to reconcile his own understanding with the supernatural revelations’. Edwards prefers Q1/2’s ‘your’, which he argues is a general term (as in ‘your whoreson dead body’ at 5.1.169-70) rather than a specific reference to Horatio’s skepticism” (p. 218). A note regarding Hamlet’s line “That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house/And hurt my mother” reads: “Oxf and Hibbard prefer Q2’s ‘brother’ which is supported by brothers’ wager at 200 and of course by the context more generally. Dowden, who prints ‘brother’, suggests tentatively that mother may nevertheless be ‘an afterthought of Shakespeare’ referring to the fact that the Queen requested Hamlet to make this apology – and he is perhaps apologizing for its less than candid quality; some gesture towards the Queen would be needed to indicate this in performance. This request, however, occurs only in Q2. Mother could also be taken within the metaphor ‘I have injured someone close to me’” (p. 351). This edition was first published in 2006. My copy is from the 2023 reprint.

Hamlet The First Quarto by William Shakespeare – This volume is A Scolar Press Facsimile, reproduced in the original size with permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. It is a facsimile of the British Museum copy of Q1, with the title page from the Huntington Library copy. There are no notes on the text. This volume was first printed in 1969, and reprinted in 1972.

Hamlet The Second Quarto by William Shakespeare – This volume is also A Scolar Press Facsimile, reproduced in the original size with permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. It is a facsimile of the British Museum copy of Q2, dated 1605. (Three of the surviving copies of Q2 are dated 1604, the others 1605.) The final leaf, missing from the British Museum copy, is a facsimile from the Capell copy in Trinity College. The book contains no notes on the text. This book was first printed in 1969, and reprinted in 1972.