num_pages: 144
description: The first printed text of Shakespeare's Hamlet is about half the length of the more familiar second quarto and Folio versions. It reorders and combines key plot elements to present its own workable alternatives. This is the only modernized critical edition of the 1603 quarto in print. Kathleen Irace explains its possible origins, special features and surprisingly rich performance history, and while describing textual differences between it and other versions, offers alternatives that actors or directors might choose for specific productions.
language: English
title: The First Quarto of Hamlet
titlecomplete: The First Quarto of Hamlet (The New Cambridge Shakespeare: The Early Quartos)
characters: Bernardo, Fortinbras, Claudius, King of Denmark, Reynaldo, Voltimand, Osric, Polonius, Francisco, Horatio, Ophelia, Cornelius, Marcellus, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Laertes, Gertrude
genres: Fiction, Plays, Theatre, Poetry, Drama, School, Literature, Read For School, Classics, High School
ratings_count: 912441
places: Denmark
awards: awardedAt: 1325404800000
name: Grammy Award
category: Best Spoken Word Album
publisher: Cambridge University Press