Excerpt from Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Edited, With Notes The text of this edition of Hamlet is based upon a careful collation of the quarto of 1604 and the folio of 1623 with the other early editions and the leading modern ones. All the important Daria: lertz'ones are given in the Notes; so that the reader, If he considers my text too conservative, has all the materials necessary for making one to suit himself. In the Notes my indebtedness to Furness is acknowledged on almost every page, and yet is by no means fully recorded. His edition furnishes an abstract and epitome of the vast literature of Hamlet, and is indis pensable to the teacher and the critical scholar. He found it no easy task to condense his material into two octavo volumes; and in carrying out my more modest plan I have found a like difiiculty in keeping within my limited space. The play is one of the longest (about twice as long as mamatli), and the amount that has been written about it far exceeds that on any other of Shakespeare's works. Furness does not exaggerate when he says N 0 one Of mortal mould (save iiim whose blessed feet were nailed for our advantage to the bitter cross') ever trod this earth, commanding such absorbing interest as this Hamlet, this mere creation of a poet's brain. NO sxllable that be u hispers, no word let fall by any one near him, but is caught and pondered as no nords ever have been, cxcept of Holy Writ. Upon no throne built by mortal hands has ever 'beat so fierce a light' as upon that airy fabric reared at Elsinore. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.