The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.,is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughou! the year. the Folger offers at full calendar of performances and programs.

In recent years, ways of dealing with Shakespeare’s texts and with the interpretation of his plays have been undergoing significant change. This edition, while retaining many of the features that have always made the Folger Shakespeare so attractive to the general reader, at the same time reflects these current ways of thinking about Shakespeare. For example, modern readers, actors, and teachers have become interested in the diiferetices between, on the one hand, the early forms in which Shakespeare’s plays were first published and, on the other hand,the forms in which editors through the centuries have presented them...

Editors’ Preface

Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Reading Shakespeare’s Language: Hamlet

Shakespeare’s Life

Shakespeare’s Theater

The Publication of Shakespeare’s plays

An Introduction to This Text

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

 Text of the Play with Commentary

Textual Notes

Hamlet: A Modern Perspective

 by Michael Neili

Further Reading

Key to Famous Lines and Phrases