Internet Shakespeare Editions

About this edition

  • Editor: David Bevington
  • Associate textual editor: Donald Bailey
  • General textual editors: James D. Mardock, Eric Rasmussen
  • Coordinating editor: Michael Best
  • Associate coordinating editor: Janelle Jenstad
  • Hamlet

    By William Shakespeare

    Edited by David Bevington

    Quick start: Hamlet (Modern, Editor's Version)

    Introduction

    Texts of this edition

    Hamlet was published in three widely variant versions. The First Quarto (Q1, 1603) was apparently unauthorized, and differs greatly from the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604), which may have been based on Shakespeare's own papers. The Folio text (F1, 1623) was apparently based on a transcript differing in numerous details from Q2 and omitting more than two hundred lines in that quarto, along with some shorter additions. The Editor's Choice version combines the most effective passages from all three texts.

    Hamlet (Editor's Choice)

    Hamlet (First Quarto)

    Hamlet (Second Quarto)

    Hamlet (First Folio)


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