ABSTRACT
The 1603 First Quarto of Hamlet, sometimes known as the play’s “bad quarto,” includes the following stage direction: “Enter Ophelia, playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing” (scene xiv, line 1690).1 While many commentators relate this description to a contemporary staging choice, few explain its derivation or rationale. For their part, editors have tended to omit, bracket, or footnote Q1’s indication, perhaps to confirm the doubtful status of this text as “pirated,” or an actor’s “memorial reconstruction.”2 In turn, this editorial preference has evidently influenced modern stage and film versions of Hamlet, most of which, though they
1 All scene and line references for the First Quarto version of Hamlet are to the excellent edition entitled Il primo Amleto, with facing Italian translation, by Alessandro Serpieri (Venice: Marsilio, 1997). Following standard practice, I abbreviate the First Quarto, Second Quarto and First Folio versions of the play as “Q1,” “Q2,”and “F,” respectively; for Q2 and F references, I mainly use the Arden edition of Hamlet, ed. Harold Jenkins (London: Arden, 1982). Jenkins accepts the identification of Q1 as a “memorial reconstruction.” I also use the edition of the play by Susanne L. Wofford (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994). I wish to thank Professor Serpieri for generously and very helpfully commenting on an early draft of this essay. Similar thanks go to Robert Henke and my other colleagues in the “Theater without Borders” international working group on early modern drama, and at Syracuse and New York Universities in Florence.
