s lagging far behind both in achievement and
reputation. This new exhibition of the force of his genius
re-established, too, the ascendency of the adult actors who interpreted
his work, and the boys' supremacy was quickly brought to an end. In 1602
Shakespeare produced 'Hamlet,' 'that piece of his which most kindled
English hearts.' The story of the Prince of Denmark had been popular on
the stage as early as 1589 in a lost dramatic version by another
writer--doubtless Thomas Kyd, whose tragedies of blood, 'The Spanish
Tragedy' and 'Jeronimo,' long held the Elizabethan stage. To that lost
version of 'Hamlet' Shakespeare's tragedy certainly owed much. {221} The
story was also accessible in the 'Histoires Tragiques' of Belleforest,
who adapted it from the 'Historia Danica' of Saxo Grammaticus. {222} No
English translation of Belleforest's 'Hystorie of Hamblet' appeared
before 1608; Shakespeare doubtless read it in the French. But his
authorities give little hint of what was to emerge from his study of
them.

The problem of its publication.
The First Quarto, 1603.

Burbage created the title-part in Shakespeare's tragedy, and its success
on the stage led to the play's publication immediately afterwards. The
bibliography of 'Hamlet' offers a puzzling problem. On July 26, 1602, 'A
Book called the Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, as it was lately
acted by the Lord Chamberlain his Servants,' was entered on the
Stationers' Company's Registers, and it was published in quarto next year
by N[icholas] L[ing] and John Trundell. The title-page stated that the
piece had been 'acted divers times in the city of London, as also in the
two Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and elsewhere.' The text here
appeared in a rough and imperfect state. In all probability it was a
piratical and carelessly transcribed copy of Shakespeare's first draft of
the play, in which he drew largely on the older piece.

The Second Quarto, 1604.

A revised version, printed from a more complete and accurate manuscript,
was published in 1604 as 'The Tragical History of Hamlet Prince of
Denmark, by William Shakespeare, newly imprinted and enlarged to almost
as much again as it was, according to the true and perfect copy.' This
was printed by I[ames] R[oberts] for the publisher N[icholas] L[ing].
The concluding words--'according to the true and perfect copy'--of the
title-page of the second quarto were intended to stamp its predece