Background on Hamlet

1
Background on Hamlet
2
The Globe Theatre

• Size and Shape
• Opened in 1599 Shakespeare's company regularly
  performed there.
• Polygonal shape with as many as 20 sides.

3
The Globe Theatre

• The "hell" at the bottom was a space for devils
  and others to emerge.
• Roof or covering was called "the heavens."

4
The Globe Theatre

• Yard of the Globe was 80' in diameter held 800
  spectators.
• "Groundlings" in front of the stage were rowdy.

5
The Globe Theatre

• Platform for the thrust stage was 40' wide.
• The theatre probably held 1500 people in the
  galleries, making 2300 in all.

6
Performances

• The players were all men the women's parts were
  played by boys.
• --Shakespeare in Love
• Specific parts were written for specific actors.

7
Book Sizes

• 1. Folio Sheet folded in half to make 4 sides
• 2. Quarto Sheet folded twice so as to make 4
  leaves or 8 pages, (9 1/2" x 12")
• 3. Octavo Sheet folded so as to make 8 leaves or
  16 pages (6 x 9" )
• 4. Duodecimo Sheet folded so as to make 12
  leaves or 24 pages (about 5 x 7")

8
Early Editions of Hamlet

• First Quarto (1603)
• For Hamlet, the First Quarto presents a "bad" or
  memorially reconstructed text.
• Some scholars believe that these came from minor
  players remembering and dictating the play,
  although others have discredited this theory. In
  Hamlet, they believe that the actor playing
  Marcellus does this.

9
Early Editions of Hamlet

• The First Quarto text of Hamlet presents a much
  more sympathetic vision of Gertrude she swears
  to assist Hamlet in his revenge, for example.
• A scene between Gertrude and Horatio exists in
  this version and disappears in later ones.
  Gertrude is told the news that Hamlet tells in
  his letter to Horatio, thus establishing her as
  Hamlets ally.

10
Early Editions of Hamlet

• Second Quarto (1604).
• J. D. Wilson showed in 1934 that this quarto was
  prepared from Shakespeares original manuscript
  or possibly from a corrected edition of the First
  Quarto.
• The Second Quarto has about 200 lines not in the
  Folio.

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Early Editions of Hamlet

• First Folio (1623)
• Contains 18 plays previously printed in quarto
  editions and 18 others that would not otherwise
  have survived.

12
Early Editions of Hamlet

• The Folio edition has stage directions.
• The Folio edition includes about 90 lines not in
  the Second quarto.

13
To be or not to be in the Folio

• To be, or not to be, that is the question
• Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
• The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
• Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
• And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep
• No more, and by a sleep to say we end
• The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
• That flesh is heir to . . .

14
To be or not to be in the Quarto

• To be or not to be, ay theres the point
• To die, to sleep, is that all? Ay, all.
• No, to sleep, to dream ay marry, there it goes.
• For in that dream of death, when we awake
• And borne before an everlasting judge,
• From whence no passenger ever returned,
• The undiscovered country, at whose sight
• The happy smile, and the accursed damned . .

15
Sources

• Thomas Kyd's Hamlet in the 1580s (now lost) this
  is referred to as the Ur-Hamlet.
• Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (1587) (Revenge
  tragedy)

16
Sources

• Saxo Grammaticus's Historica Danica written in
  second half of twelfth century

17
Sources

• Shakespeare also may have used volume 5 (1570) of
  Histoires tragiques, a free translation of Saxo
  by François de Belleforest.
• The Hystorie of Hamblet, an English version of
  Belleforest's work, was published in London in
  1608, after Shakespeares Hamlet had been
  performed.

18
Sources

• Hamlet is from Amleth in Belleforest it's a word
  that means fool or one who feigns madness in
  Danish.

19
Sources

• In the original, Amleth feigns madness to keep
  away from his murderous uncle.

20
Sources

• The ghost in the original play by Belleforest
  said "Hamlet! Revenge!" frequently, which must
  have been a joke by the time of the Hamlet.

21
Sources

• From Harold Bloom, Shakespeare The Invention of
  the Human
• Bloom believes that Shakespeare himself wrote the
  ur-Hamlet play from 1589 and that he made several
  changes in this version.

22
Sources

• The Ghost (which Shakespeare probably played) is
  less prominent in the version of Hamlet that we
  know.

23
Hamlet Sites

• The Enfolded Hamlet
• Hamlet on the Ramparts
• Shakespeare Quartos Online
• The Authorship Debate