general editor’s prefaceprefaceintroduction1. thomas davies, on Steevens’s and Malone’s editions and various 18th century theatrical performances, 17842. william richardson, a philosophical analysis of Hamlet’s character, 17843. walter whiter, on Hamlet’s melancholic disposition, 1794 4. johann wolfgang von goethe, Hamlet’s character as analogue for Wilheim Meister’s own disenchantment, 17975 lord john chedworth, Glosses and personal annotation of early variorum editions (Johnson, Steevens, Malone), 18056 e.h. seymour, on collations of various passages from quartos as a means of making the ‘brightness of Shakespeare’s genius still more conspicuous’, 18057 francis douce, on the historical, cultural analogues and ‘anachronisms’ of the play, 18078 henry james pye, various commentary notes, 1807 9 john monck mason, various commentary on variorum editions, 180710 august wilhelm von schlegel, on Hamlet’s unheroic predisposition, 180811 samuel taylor coleridge, on Hamlet’s “unpractical being” and similarity with Wilhelm Meister, 181012 charles lamb, on the difficulty of representing theatrically Hamlet’s ‘solitary musings’, 181113 samuel taylor coleridge, on Hamlet’s “irresoluteness” of his revenge in Act 3, 181214 samuel taylor coleridge, Hamlet’s use of ‘trivial objects and familiar circumstances’, 181315 william hazlitt, on Edmund Kean’s rehearsal of Hamlet’s ‘undulating lines’, 181416 andrew becket, on the importance of collation and conjecture in determining Shakespeare’s meaning, 181517 william hazlitt, on the complexity of Hamlet’s characters, with passing reference to Kemble and Kean’s flawed performances, 181718 samuel taylor coleridge, and Hamlet’s “flying” from reality, 181819 t[homas] c[ampbell] [john wilson] ‘Letters on Shakspeare – No. 1. – Hamlet.’, 181820 samuel taylor coleridge, Hamlet and the development of his ‘philosophical criticism’, 181921 zachary jackson, presenting 700 passages needing penetration and restoration, 181922 anon. ‘Observations on Mr. Campbell’s Essay on English Poetry’, 181923 samuel taylor coleridge, and the ‘easy language of common life’ in Hamlet, 181924 samuel taylor coleridge, on Hamlet Act 1, 181925 samuel taylor coleridge, miscellaneous manuscript notes, 181926 augustine skottowe, various observations on scenes, 182427 samuel weller singer, and the dating of Hamlet, 182628 hartley coleridge, on the complexity of reading Hamlet’s character, 182829 george farren, an appendix on mania and melancholy in Hamlet and Ophelia, 182930 thomas caldecott, a defense of Hamlet’s behavior as a means of enacting revenge, 183231 james boaden, a memoir of Garrick’s Hamlet, 183232 anna jameson, Ophelia, ‘the snowflake dissolved in air’, 183233 nathan drake, Hamlet’s reticence to revenge, 183834 thomas carlyle, Shakespeare: Priest of Mankind, 184035 alexander dyce, a critique of Collier’s 1841 and Knight’s 1842 editions, 184436 joseph hunter, Shakespearean variants, 184537 henry n. hudson, the ‘universality’ of Hamlet’s character, 184838 edward strachey, Hamlet as a ‘man’ and the ‘triumph’ of his revenge, 184839 samuel weller singer, “the meaning of ‘Drink Up Eisell’ in Hamlet.” 185040 nicolaus delius, selected commentary notes, 185441 rev. arthur ramsay, and the ‘mystery of humanity’, 185642 henry hope reed, on Hamlet’s ‘meditative mind’, 185643 william maginn, on Polonius as ‘ceremonious courtier’, 185644 william rushton, on Shakespeare’s legal acumen, 185945 ivan turgenev,on the ‘turbulent sea’ and the ‘deep flowing tranquility’, 186046 charles cowden clarke and the ‘shrouding’ of Hamlet’s revenge, 186347 georg gottfried gervinus, the ‘conscientious’ Hamlet, 186348 b[rinsley] nicholson, Shakespeare and ‘sour and stale beer’, 186449 james henry hackett, reviews of contemporary ‘Hamlets’, 186450 victor hugo , Hamlet and “hesitation”, 186451 albert cohn, the German ‘Hamlet’, 186552 samuel bailey, on the empirical Shakespeare, 186653 john bucknill, ‘Ophelia, so simple, so beautiful, so pitiful’, 186754 thomas keightley, on individual passages, 186755 benno tschischwitz, on Bruno’s atomistic philosophy and Hamlet, 186756 benno tschischwitz, on Shakespeare’s philosophy and Giordano Bruno’s influence, 186957 p[eter] a[ugustin] daniel, notes and conjectures, 187058 george miles, A Review of ‘’Hamlet’. 187059 r[obert] g[ordon] latham, the ‘hopelessness’ of Hamlet’s pre-cursors, 187260 mary cowden clarke, on Ophelia’s youth, 187361 karl elze, the French Hamlet, 187462 edward dowden, and mystery, the ‘baffling, vital obscurity of the play’, 187563 [francis] frank a[lbert] marshall, ‘the early life’ of Hamlet, 187564 hermann ulrici, Hamlet’s ‘double contradiction’, 187665 john bulloch, and the Globe edition emendations, 187866 j. o. halliwell-phillipps , on Hamlet’s ‘singular determination’, 187967 charles cowden clarke and mary cowden clarke, ‘unlocking the treasures of his style’, 1879NotesSelect BibliographyIndex

The aim of the Critical Tradition series is to increase our knowledge of how Shakespeare’s plays were received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. Each volume traces the course of Shakespeare criticism, play-by-play, from the earliest items of recorded criticism to the beginnings of the modern period. The focus of the documentary material is from the late 18th century to the first half of the 20th century. The series makes a major contribution to our understanding of the plays and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism as they have developed from century to century. The introduction to each volume constitutes an important chapter of literary history, tracing the entire critical career of each play from the beginnings to the present day. The revised series includes updated and expanded editions of King John, Richard II and Coriolanus, alongside editions of plays previously unexplored in the series.