Hamlet Q1

Q1 of Hamlet, or the "First Quarto" as it is also called, is a short early text of the Shakespearean play. The intended publication of the play is entered in the Stationers' Register in 1602 by James Roberts, but Q1 was not published until summer or autumn 1603. It was published by the booksellers Nicholas Ling and John Trundell, and printed by Valentine Simmes. Roberts later printed the "Second Quarto" (Q2).

The other two early printed texts of Hamlet are the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604) and First Folio (F1, 1623) (subsequent quartos over the period 1604–1623 are all, at least in their substantive features, derived from Q2). Both Q2 and F1 are more than 1600 lines longer than Q1.

Q1 was unknown until 1823, when the first of only two known copies was discovered by Sir Henry Bunbury. Since then the exact relationship between Q1 and the other early texts of the play, as well as its origin as a text, has been extensively debated but no scholarly consensus has been reached.

In addition to the fact that Q1 is much shorter than both Q2 and the F1 version of the play, it has a number of unique characteristics. There are many oddities and unexplained bits of action, consistent with crude cutting of the text (how Hamlet escapes from the ship to England is unexplained, as is the arrival of the English ambassadors). Some scenes take place at a different point in the story – for example Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech occurs in Act Two, immediately after Polonius proposes to set up an "accidental" meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia.

Strikingly, the role of Gertrude is significantly different, since she becomes an accomplice of Hamlet's in his plot against Claudius, insisting that she knew nothing of her first husband's murder and agreeing to help her son. There is an entire scene between Horatio and Gertrude in which Horatio tells her that Hamlet has escaped from the ship after discovering Claudius' plan to kill him. Gertrude says that she now recognises Claudius' "villany", but she will "soothe and please him for a time" to lull him into a false sense of security.

Another significant difference is that the character of Polonius is called "Corambis" while his servant Reynoldo is named "Montano". Various suggestions have been made to explain this. G. R. Hibbard argues that these last changes were made because Q1 derives from a touring version of the play, which was intended to include a performance at Oxford university. Hibbard believes that the original names were too close to those of two famous Oxford scholars, the university's founder Robert Polenius and the Puritan theologian John Rainolds. Since Polonius is a parody of a pompous pseudo-intellectual and his servant acts as a spy, the names might have been interpreted as deliberate insults. The title page of Q1 specifically states that the play was recently performed in "the Cittie of London: as also in the two Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and else-where".

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