The bad quarto
Subtitle: the tragicall historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke
By: by William Shakespeare
Contributors: Virginia Arts of the Book Center
Publisher: Lately, a production of the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, at Charlottesville printed for posterity
Published: 2015
Place of publication: [Charlottesville, Virginia]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 68
Subjects: Drama; Kings and rulers; Succession; Murder victims' families; Fathers; Death; Princes; Revenge; Illustrations; Artists' books; Hamlet (Shakespeare, William)
Other titles: Tragicall historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke
Work titles: Hamlet
Notes: Artist's book incorporating the text of the "First quarto" of Shakespeare's Hamlet, a short, early version of the play published in London by Nicholas Ling and John Trundell in 1603.

"The bad quarto is a name applied to the first-known printing of the play ('Quarto one' or Q1, published 1603). Early scholars disdained this version as one of the 'stol'n and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by frauds and stealths of injurious impostors.' Contemporary scholars are more inclined to regard Q1 as either an early draft, a memorial reconstruction, or a 'tourbook copy' edited for production by a company of actors ... We hope our production adds to the body of what may be experienced in this play--the omissions, enlargements, strikeouts, substitutions--and where we have overacted, we ask the audience's indulgence"--Page [66].

"The bad quarto is published in an edition of 5 deluxe leather copies, 45 cloth copies, and 5 unbound signatures by the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Charlottesville, 2015 ... All copies of the edition are printed on Mohawk Superfine, softwhite eggshell, and sewn by hand. Images from first folio Hamlet, British Library C.34.k.1 Artists used Garamond and IM Fell English types"--Colophon.

Rare Book copy: No. 19 of the cloth copies.