William Shakespeare - Humanities-Ebooks
William Shakespeare - Humanities-Ebooks William Shakespeare - Humanities-Ebooks
Hamlet business of acting in a particular space. If possible, visit a theatre, any theatre, sit, breathe, look, and absorb its design. Follow these links to images of a classical amphitheatre, Roman stage, pageant-wagon, and Elizabethan amphitheatre, and just look at each hard for a minute. Shakespeare’s Hamlet has over four centuries been done in, on, and round about all of them, and many stranger venues besides, and no performance is ever independent of the physical and institutional structures that enable and frame it—buildings, stages, actors, and audiences. If these things are missing from your imagined understanding of the play’s text/s, it will (rightly) seem to you as lifeless as a TV without power; but turn the current on … A note on the texts of Hamlet There are three ‘early texts’ of Hamlet: Q1 (1603), the so-called ‘Bad Quarto’, which at c.2000 lines is half the length of the others and very different; Q2 (1604), the ‘Good Quarto’ of c.3700 lines; and F (1623), the ‘Folio text’ of c.3550 lines from the first collected Shakespeare, which drops c.230 of Q2’s lines, adds c.70 of its own, and (slightly) changes many more. Since the nineteenth century there has also been an ‘eclectic’ or ‘composite’ text of c.3850 lines, generated by editors who combine all lines in Q2 and F with some lines and stage-directions from Q1. My references are to the Arden 3 Hamlet edited by Ann Thompson & Neil Taylor (2 vols, London: Thompson Learning, 2006), and usually to its (modernised) Q2 text (in vol. 1); when the Q1 or F texts (in vol. 2) are cited, the reference indicates this. I have also therefore followed the scene-numbering and act-division of the Arden 3 text; in other editions 1.4–5 may be combined, as may any of 4.1–4 (which in F form 3.5–7). For ease of reference a summary of Arden 3’s acts and scenes is given below. All other Shakespearean references are to the Riverside text, 2 nd edition, 1997. Readers are reminded that lines per scene and role vary with editions, and that ‘verse-lines’ (i.e. complete iambic pentameters) divided between two or three speakers may count in two or three roles—so totals may seem not to tally. All line-counts given are my own, and derive from the Arden 3 Q2 text. External Hyperlinks appear in blue + underline; internal hyperlinks also have the symbol ►. Including a ship in 1607: see http://www.as.ua.edu/english/strode/articles/taylor/hamlet3.htm For a longer discussion of Shakespearean editing, using Hamlet 5.1 as an example, see John Lennard & Mary Luckhurst, The Drama Handbook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), ch. 3. Line-counts cannot be absolute because methods of counting stage-directions, headings, blank lines, and part-lines that are or end complete speeches vary.
Hamlet Acts and scenes in the Arden 3 Q2 Hamlet Act 1 Scene 1: Barnardo, Francisco, Marcellus, Horatio, Ghost Scene 2: Claudius, Gertrude, Voltemand, Cornelius, Polonius, Laertes, Hamlet (O that this too too sallied flesh), Horatio, Barnardo*, Marcellus Scene 3: Laertes, Ophelia, Polonius Scene 4: Horatio, Marcellus, Hamlet, Ghost Scene 5: Hamlet, Ghost, Horatio, Marcellus* Act 2 Scene 1: Polonius, Reynaldo*, Ophelia Scene 2: Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Voltemand*, Cornelius*, Polonius, Hamlet (O, what a rogue …), Players Act 3 Scene 1: Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius, Ophelia, Hamlet (To be, or not to be) Scene 2: Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius, Ophelia, Hamlet, Horatio, Players* Scene 3: Claudius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius, Hamlet Scene 4: Gertrude, Polonius†, Hamlet, Ghost* (‘closet scene’) Act 4 Scene 1: Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern Scene 2: Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern Scene 3: Claudius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Hamlet Scene 4: Fortinbras, Captain*, Rosencrantz*, Guildenstern*, Hamlet (How all occasions do inform …) Scene 5: Gertrude, Gentleman, Horatio, Ophelia*, Claudius, Messenger, Laertes (‘mad scene’) Scene 6: Horatio, Gentleman*, Sailors* Scene 7: Claudius, Laertes, Messenger*, Gertrude (There is a willow …) Act 5 Scene 1: Gravediggers*, Hamlet, Horatio, Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, Priest* Scene 2: Hamlet†, Horatio, Osric, Claudius†, Gertrude†, Laertes†, Fortinbras * last appearance † dies
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- Page 3 and 4: William Shakespeare: Hamlet John Le
- Page 5 and 6: Contents A Note on the Author Prefa
- Page 7: Preface Like much in the modern wor
- Page 11 and 12: Hamlet 11 So there has since 1660 b
- Page 13 and 14: Hamlet 13 for nearly twenty years,
- Page 15 and 16: Hamlet 15 the actors are presently
- Page 17: Is this sample what you are looking
Hamlet <br />
business of acting in a particular space. If possible, visit a theatre, any theatre, sit,<br />
breathe, look, and absorb its design. Follow these links to images of a classical<br />
amphitheatre, Roman stage, pageant-wagon, and Elizabethan amphitheatre, <br />
and just look at each hard for a minute. <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s Hamlet has over four centuries<br />
been done in, on, and round about all of them, and many stranger venues besides, <br />
and no performance is ever independent of the physical and institutional structures<br />
that enable and frame it—buildings, stages, actors, and audiences. If these things are<br />
missing from your imagined understanding of the play’s text/s, it will (rightly) seem<br />
to you as lifeless as a TV without power; but turn the current on …<br />
A note on the texts of Hamlet<br />
There are three ‘early texts’ of Hamlet: Q1 (1603), the so-called ‘Bad Quarto’, which<br />
at c.2000 lines is half the length of the others and very different; Q2 (1604), the<br />
‘Good Quarto’ of c.3700 lines; and F (1623), the ‘Folio text’ of c.3550 lines from the<br />
first collected <strong>Shakespeare</strong>, which drops c.230 of Q2’s lines, adds c.70 of its own, and<br />
(slightly) changes many more. Since the nineteenth century there has also been an<br />
‘eclectic’ or ‘composite’ text of c.3850 lines, generated by editors who combine all<br />
lines in Q2 and F with some lines and stage-directions from Q1. <br />
My references are to the Arden 3 Hamlet edited by Ann Thompson & Neil Taylor<br />
(2 vols, London: Thompson Learning, 2006), and usually to its (modernised) Q2 text<br />
(in vol. 1); when the Q1 or F texts (in vol. 2) are cited, the reference indicates this.<br />
I have also therefore followed the scene-numbering and act-division of the Arden 3<br />
text; in other editions 1.4–5 may be combined, as may any of 4.1–4 (which in F form<br />
3.5–7). For ease of reference a summary of Arden 3’s acts and scenes is given below.<br />
All other <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an references are to the Riverside text, 2 nd edition, 1997.<br />
Readers are reminded that lines per scene and role vary with editions, and that<br />
‘verse-lines’ (i.e. complete iambic pentameters) divided between two or three speakers<br />
may count in two or three roles—so totals may seem not to tally. All line-counts<br />
given are my own, and derive from the Arden 3 Q2 text.<br />
External Hyperlinks appear in blue + underline; internal hyperlinks also have the symbol ►.<br />
Including a ship in 1607: see http://www.as.ua.edu/english/strode/articles/taylor/hamlet3.htm<br />
For a longer discussion of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an editing, using Hamlet 5.1 as an example, see John<br />
Lennard & Mary Luckhurst, The Drama Handbook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), ch. 3.<br />
Line-counts cannot be absolute because methods of counting stage-directions, headings, blank<br />
lines, and part-lines that are or end complete speeches vary.
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