Editing Challenges
No singular authoritative manuscript of Hamlet exists, nor can one travel back in time to ask Shakespeare of the logistics of his work. Considering that three versions of the famous play were printed, modern editors must question, analyze, and ultimately play the role of the author in deciding what melange of the three versions ends up in a single, edited version. Scholars debate whether the first publication, Quarto 1, dated to 1603, is not merely a written reproduction from the memories of actors. Often, Quarto 1 is described as the “bad version” because of its comparatively inferior quality. Some scholars surmise that this version was intended for a less-educated class, as the plot is more dramatic, with numerous literary pieces omitted. Generally scholars agree that the first Folio represents the best edition of Hamlet, due to its lengthier, more literary nature. The second Quarto also follows the first Folio more closely, causing editors to draw from these two versions the most. Because of the many discrepancies between the three texts, editors must decide what scenes, lines, and spellings must be added or omitted for a final, published edition. Editors often must knit together the accuracy of the text and time period and the demands of the audience. For example, while some spellings of the text or certain names are historically accurate, they diverge from the reader’s scope of knowledge. Not only does an editor have to relate the time-period to the reader, but must intertwine the different versions into a single, representative reproduction of Hamlet. With that comes the difficulty of deciding through what lens Hamlet should be read: political, familial, or psychological drama. In the play, Hamlet’s bad collection of thoughts concerning death, afterlife, and revenge accumulate into a story read in a psychoanalytic realm. His obsession sucks him away from the people around him and causes him commit harm, ending in death and despair for all. For editors, it is imperative to keep the bad collections open and to create an edition that enables readers to create their own interpretations and bad collections for the themes found in Hamlet. A bad edition of the play would favor one thematic scope through certain placement of scenes, soliloquies, and word glosses. A good edition would keep the thematic interpretation neutral and open to the reader.
Textual Analysis
Folio 1
HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. -- Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! -- Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
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Perhaps Shakespeare’s most famed line and soliloquy, “to be or not to be” penetrates Hamlets unconscious and brings about the psychoanalytic essence of the play. As Hamlet’s facade of insanity merges into reality and his mental structure begins to crumble, he faces numerous existential questions. Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” reaches to the core of his existence, questioning what his life means and on a universal level, what any life means. Pained by the murder of his father and the task of avenging his, along with the, in his eyes, infidelity of his mother, Hamlet sees the world as a broken, sinful world. In his soliloquy, he grapples with the struggle of suffering or of relieving the pain through suicide. He muses on the possibilities after death; of whether death is a certain end, or rather a sleep that removes one from the broken world. Furthering the theme of his indecision and ambivalence, Hamlet then compares death to sleep plagued by nightmares. Would the nightmares of death prove more torturous than the reality of pain in life because you can’t wake up from death? His musings produce no answers and merely increase his mental stability as he toys with death and murder.
Bad Collection: Interpreted as a bad collection, Hamlet’s thoughts and musings on death plague his mind and conscience. They cause him to isolate himself psychologically from the people around him and rot and decay his mind. While pondering on existential questions such as the meaning and purpose of life is important, Hamlet’s extreme dwellings only result in murder of his own conscience and those around him. The only manifestation of his dark thoughts are dark actions.
Quarto 1
To be, or not to be, that is the question,
Whether tis nobler in the minde to suffer
The slings and arrowes of outragious fortune,
Or to take Armes against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them, to die to sleepe
No more, and by a sleepe, to say we end
The hart-ake, and the thousand naturall shocks
That flesh is heire to; tis a consumation
Deuoutly to be wisht to die to sleepe,
To sleepe, perchance to dreame, I there's the rub,
For in that sleepe of death what dreames may come
When we haue shuffled off this mortall coyle
Must giue vs pause, there's the respect
That makes calamitie of so long life:
For who would beare the whips and scornes of time,
Th'oppressors wrong, the proude mans contumely,
The pangs of despiz'd loue, the lawes delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurnes
That patient merrit of th'vnworthy takes,
When he himselfe might his quietas make
With a bare bodkin; who would fardels beare,
To grunt and sweat vnder a wearie life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscouer'd country, from whose borne
No trauiler returnes, puzzels the will,
And makes vs rather beare those ills we haue,
Then flie to others that we know not of.
Thus conscience dooes make cowards,
And thus the natiue hiew of resolution
Is sickled ore with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard theyr currents turne awry,
And loose the name of action. Soft you now,
The faire Ophelia, Nimph in thy orizons
Be all my sinnes remembred.
Quarto 2
To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,
From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,
The undiscouered country, at whose sight
The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.
But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,
Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,
The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,
And thousand more calamities besides,
To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,
When that he may his full Quietus make,
With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,
But for a hope of something after death?
Which pusles the braine, and doth confound the sence,
Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,
Than flie to others that we know not of.
I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,
Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.