The Importance of the Origin of the First Quarto of Hamlet Essays

The magnificence of the Origin of the basic Quarto of playactlet Ofel Alas, what a change is this? Ham But if thou wilt needes marry, marry a foole, For wisemen know surface enough, What monsters you make of them, to a Nunnery goe. Ofel Pray God restore him. Ham Nay, I have heard of your painting too, God hath giuen you one face, And you make your selues a nonher, --HAMLET, Prince of Denmarke, The head start Quarto The title page of the second quarto of Hamlet claims that the schoolbook beneath it is Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much / againe as it was, according to the true and perfect / Coppie. Taking this at face value, tercet facts necessary follow That there is at least one former chance variable (or else this one could not be newly imprinted...again) that the in front edition was shorter (or else this one could not be enlarged) and that this quarto does not intromit some lines from the perfect Coppie (since it is almost as much). Indeed, a First Quar to exists dated a year earlier (1603) Q1 is shorter some 1600 lines and the foliage does restore certain seemingly authorial passages. It appears as if I.R., the printer, or N.L., the publisher, is remediate on all possible counts. We cannot even condemn I.R. or N.L. for self-interested advertising. They suit that their copy is almost, simply not quite, perfect.* Thus we might wish to persuade seriously one further hitch that the title page tries to make, namely, that the earlier quarto was neither true nor perfect, and therefore is corrupted not barely in its brevity, but also in the presentation of the text which it very does contain. This would mean that Q1 did not use the true and perfect Coppie as its copy-text. It does not seem preposterous to rephras... ...ay. The strategic early placing of the To be or not to be, I theres the point monologue gives it less weight than it has in Q2, as if it were the beginning of Hamlets train of thought as opposed to the turning poin t we often think it is when we read a modern edition. Indeed, the point is much absolute than the question. Hamlet does not fight with himself to solve a problem, but merely expresses what that problem is. To argue that this is oversimplification is to oversimplify it is a revision. It is an Elizabethan argument, positing that a truly revengeful Hamlet would definitely shy apart from suicide for hope of salvation, while the confused avenger Hamlet would plausibly shy away from suicide for fear of punishment. That in itself sheds light on the pop psychology of the day, and thus how we ought to read Hamlets psychology in the background of its time.