and performance contexts, Neil Taylor presents a thorough survey of critical approaches to the play.  He addresses the challenges faced in reading, editing, or acting a play with the depth of content and tradition that Hamlet possesses.  He also establishes the historical and cultural context in which the play was written and explains the arguments about the merits and deficiencies of the First and Second Quarto and the First Folio.  Taylor points to the many novelists, both men and women, whose work refers to or bears commonalities with Hamlet, to suggest an ongoing to need to resolve "the continuing mystery of Hamlet" in print and on stage.  An appendix contains the additional passages found only in the 1623 text, and other appendices on the editorial process, the traditions regarding the act division at 3.4/4.1, casting, and music are also included. Table of ContentsList of illustrationsGeneral editors’ prefacePrefaceINTRODUCTION The challenges of Hamlet    The challenge of acting Hamlet    The challenge of editing Hamlet    The challenge to the greatness of Hamlet: Hamlet versus Lear Hamlet in our time    The soliloquies and the modernity of Hamlet    Hamlet and Freud    Reading against the Hamlet traditionHamlet in Shakespeare’s time    Hamlet at the turn of the century    The challenge of dating Hamlet        Was there an earlier Hamlet play?        Are there any early references to Shakespeare’s play?        Can we date Hamlet in relation to other contemporary plays?        Hamlet’s first performancesThe story of Hamlet    Murder most foul    An antic disposition    ‘Sentences’, speeches and thoughtsThe composition of Hamlet    The quartos and the Folio        The quartos        The First Folio        The relationship of Q2 to Q1        The relationship of F to Q2        What, then, of Q1?        Editorial practice        Why a three-text edition?Hamlet on stage and screen    Hamlet and his points    Enter the director    Hamlet and politicsNovel Hamlets    Hamlet meets Fielding, Goethe, Dickens and others    Hamlet and women novelists    Prequels and sequelsThe continuing mystery of HamletTHE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK (The Second Quarto, 1604-5)APPENDICESAppendix 1: Folio-only passagesAppendix 2: Textual discussionAppendix 3: Editorial conventions, sample edited passages and a comparison of scenes across the three textsAppendix 4: The act division at 3.4/4.1Appendix 5: CastingAppendix 6: MusicAbbreviations and references     Abbreviations used in notes     Works by and partly by Shakespeare     Editions of Shakespeare collated     Other works citedIndex

Hide more