This essay is focuses in comparing the Shakespeare’s texts (First quarto, second quarto and Folio) and Saxo Grammaticus and discuss the similarities and differences between those texts. Hamlet is a tragedy of the English playwright William Shakespeare. He probably based Hamlet on the legend of Amleth (Saxo quarto) but in this essay I will talk about that next. We do not know exactly the year in which this work was written. Hamlet is the longest of Shakespeare’s plays, it is for many people the most crucial. Maybe it is the universal tragedy which has aroused more studies. Its main character, Prince Hamlet, has been analysed from a lot of diverse perspectives. In 1990 Freud compared the tragedy of the King Sophocles, Oedipus “After Oedipus:
…show more content…
At first I am going to compare the first quarto and the Second quarto. The first Quarto is generally called “The bad quarto” it is the shorter teste whereas the second quarto is “the good quarto” because is more reliable and is the longest one. Apparently it is taken from the Shakespeare 's own manuscript. According to Hudson:
“The first quarto is only about half the length of the Second Quarto; the text is mutilated and corrupt; the queen is represented as concerting and actively cooperating with Hamlet against the King’s life, and she has an interview of considerable length with Horatio, who informs her of Hamlet’s scape from the ship bound for England, and of his safe return to Denmark”
“A reasonable theory of the relation of these two Quartos, and one widely accepted, is that the First Quarto represents in an imperfect from the first draft of Shakespeare’s play, and was printed from ´copy’ obtained surreptitiously, probably from the notes of some shorthand writer, supplemented by a reference to the authentic copy in the library of the theatre; and that the Second Quarto represents the play revised and enlarged by …show more content…
In the Second Quarto, the king appears accompanied at first of the third scene in the IV act, however in the Folio the king appears alone and this scene is become in a soliloquy.
In the following text we can compare the different versions of the most known soliloquy:
First Quarto:
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be; there is the point.
To die, to sleep: is that all? Ay, all.
No, to sleep, to dream; ay marry, there it goes. Second Quarto:
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be; that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffe
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end
At first I am going to compare the first quarto and the Second quarto. The first Quarto is generally called “The bad quarto” it is the shorter teste whereas the second quarto is “the good quarto” because is more reliable and is the longest one. Apparently it is taken from the Shakespeare 's own manuscript. According to Hudson:
“The first quarto is only about half the length of the Second Quarto; the text is mutilated and corrupt; the queen is represented as concerting and actively cooperating with Hamlet against the King’s life, and she has an interview of considerable length with Horatio, who informs her of Hamlet’s scape from the ship bound for England, and of his safe return to Denmark”
“A reasonable theory of the relation of these two Quartos, and one widely accepted, is that the First Quarto represents in an imperfect from the first draft of Shakespeare’s play, and was printed from ´copy’ obtained surreptitiously, probably from the notes of some shorthand writer, supplemented by a reference to the authentic copy in the library of the theatre; and that the Second Quarto represents the play revised and enlarged by …show more content…
In the Second Quarto, the king appears accompanied at first of the third scene in the IV act, however in the Folio the king appears alone and this scene is become in a soliloquy.
In the following text we can compare the different versions of the most known soliloquy:
First Quarto:
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be; there is the point.
To die, to sleep: is that all? Ay, all.
No, to sleep, to dream; ay marry, there it goes. Second Quarto:
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be; that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffe
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end