INTRODUCTION

LITERARY HISTORY.

The Literary History of Hamlet is of such great interest, and, at the same time, so full of difficulties and of disputed points, that the most one can do, in the limited space of such an Introduction as this, is to place the chief facts clearly before one's readers, and to point out briefly the deductions which have been or may be made from these facts.

On July 26th, 1602, the Stationers' Register contains the following entry:

James Robertes. Entred for his Copie vnder the handes of master PASFEILD and master waterson warden A booke called ‘the Revenge of HAMLETT Prime [of] Denmarke’ as yt was latelie Acted by the Lord Chamberleyne his servantsvjd

For some reason the publication was deferred ; and it was not till 1603 that the first edition of the play was printed with the following title-page:

“The I Tragicall Historie of | HAMLET | Prince of DenmarJce | By William Shakespeare. | As it hath beene diuerse times acted by his Highnesse ser- | uants in the Cittie of London: as also in the two V- | niuersities of Cambridge and Oxford, and else-where | At London printed for N. L. and John Trundell. | 1603.”