Young Shakespeares Young Hamlet: Print, Piracy, and Performance [Paperback]

The different versions of Hamlet constitute one of the most vexing puzzles in Shakespeare studies. In this groundbreaking work, Shakespeare scholar Terri Bourus argues that this puzzle can only be solved by drawing on multiple kinds of evidence and analysis, including book and theatre history, biography, performance studies, and close readings.1. "What do you read, my lord?": Piratical Publishers? 2. 'Remember me': Piratical Actors? 3. "My tables: meet it is I set it down": Piratical Reporters? 4. "Young Hamlet": How Old is Young? 5. "The chronicles and brief abstracts of the time": Young Shakespeare? 6. "My father's death": Revising Hamlet?

Bourus takes on the tripartite role of detective, historian, and theatrical laboratory technician in Young Shakespeare's Young Hamlet. Methodically, she dismantles fossilized assumptions about one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, leaving one to wonder how such a mess of ill- or unfounded propositions could have held currency for so long. Bourus's important book will change the face of Hamlet scholarship. When you get to her conclusion, you will say, with young Hamlet, 'ay, there's the point!' - Regina Buccola, Associate Professor, Literature and Languages, Roosevelt University, USA and Scholar in Residence, Chicago Shakespeare Theater

For about two centuries we have been seeking answers to the various riddles surrounding the three texts of Hamlet. Previous commentators have worked from bibliographical, literary-historical, or theatrical perspectives and have not come up with fully satisfactory answers. However, Bourus combines all these approaches, since she is trained in all these areas, and comes up with surprising and very satisfactory answers. Anyone seriously interested in Hamlet must read this book. - William Proctor Williams, Adjunct Professor of English, University of Akron, USA, and author l#7