Since A. W. Pollard invented the term "bad quarto," in Shakespeare"s Folios and Quartos: A Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare"s Plays 1594-1685(1909), the first quarto of Hamlet has been almost habitually called just as the "bad" one. In fact, Q1 Hamlet has many flaws such as about half of the...
Since A. W. Pollard invented the term "bad quarto," in Shakespeare"s Folios and Quartos: A Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare"s Plays 1594-1685(1909), the first quarto of Hamlet has been almost habitually called just as the "bad" one. In fact, Q1 Hamlet has many flaws such as about half of the length of the more familiar second quarto and folio versions, the uneven verbal texture and the simpler characterization, etc. We can find, however, the bad Hamlet is not so bad as it has been thought, if we read the text closely and reconsider its value, in terms of performance and separately from the other longer texts. Above all, the radical abridgement of two hours" traffic, which Q1 Hamlet shows, must have been more suitable for the stage production. As Kathleen Irace says, the neatness of the difference suggests that this structural change might have been a deliberate theatrical alteration designed to speed the action(11). The running time of Q2 or F should be more than 4 hours, which is extraodinarily longer than 2 or 3 hours of the usual productions in the Elizabethan period. The time of 4 hours should be too long for the audience, especially for the groundlings who should stand to see the performance. Q1 has not a few alterations of even famous lines and many spelling errors. One of the most noticeable altered lines is "to be or not to be, ay, there" point." But this is not just the result of a reporter"s flawed memory. Whereas "that is the problem" should be spoken in the way of internal soliloquy in which the actor communes with himself, "ay, there"s point" must be delivered directly to the audience as a Hamlet"s own comment on the line of "to be or not to be" because he enters, reading a book. "Ay, there"s point" is supposed to reflect the Elizabethan acting style which tries to contact with the audience as often as possible. Many of spelling errors in Q1 are not quite different from the common cases, usually found in most early modern texts. Additionally, like "trapically" which is a pun on "tropically," some misspelled words are intentionally coined for more theatrical effect. We must also give attention to the fact that Q1 keeps or more actively uses the couplets which would verbally decorate the last moments of the important scenes and the whole lines of the play within a play in Hamlet. Q1"s characters seem to be still simpler than Q2"s or F"s, but they must be more theatrical. Q1"s stage directions describe characters"s action or the dramatic situation most detailedly among three Hamlet texts"s. Even though Q1"s Hamlet doesn"t speak "the rest is silence" at his last moment, the very scene just after his death must be silent for a few seconds until Fortinbras and his soldiers appear on the stage. Q1"s silence hidden between lines might be able to have voice when it has a space of the stage. As Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor insist, Q1, if staged with speed, energy and talent, not only may provide us with evidence about the nature of a performing text in Shakespeare"s theatre, but may even, as theatre, be "not bad, but excellent"(37).
Since A. W. Pollard invented the term "bad quarto," in Shakespeare"s Folios and Quartos: A Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare"s Plays 1594-1685(1909), the first quarto of Hamlet has been almost habitually called just as the "bad" one. In fact, Q1 Hamlet has many flaws such as about half of the length of the more familiar second quarto and folio versions, the uneven verbal texture and the simpler characterization, etc. We can find, however, the bad Hamlet is not so bad as it has been thought, if we read the text closely and reconsider its value, in terms of performance and separately from the other longer texts. Above all, the radical abridgement of two hours" traffic, which Q1 Hamlet shows, must have been more suitable for the stage production. As Kathleen Irace says, the neatness of the difference suggests that this structural change might have been a deliberate theatrical alteration designed to speed the action(11). The running time of Q2 or F should be more than 4 hours, which is extraodinarily longer than 2 or 3 hours of the usual productions in the Elizabethan period. The time of 4 hours should be too long for the audience, especially for the groundlings who should stand to see the performance. Q1 has not a few alterations of even famous lines and many spelling errors. One of the most noticeable altered lines is "to be or not to be, ay, there" point." But this is not just the result of a reporter"s flawed memory. Whereas "that is the problem" should be spoken in the way of internal soliloquy in which the actor communes with himself, "ay, there"s point" must be delivered directly to the audience as a Hamlet"s own comment on the line of "to be or not to be" because he enters, reading a book. "Ay, there"s point" is supposed to reflect the Elizabethan acting style which tries to contact with the audience as often as possible. Many of spelling errors in Q1 are not quite different from the common cases, usually found in most early modern texts. Additionally, like "trapically" which is a pun on "tropically," some misspelled words are intentionally coined for more theatrical effect. We must also give attention to the fact that Q1 keeps or more actively uses the couplets which would verbally decorate the last moments of the important scenes and the whole lines of the play within a play in Hamlet. Q1"s characters seem to be still simpler than Q2"s or F"s, but they must be more theatrical. Q1"s stage directions describe characters"s action or the dramatic situation most detailedly among three Hamlet texts"s. Even though Q1"s Hamlet doesn"t speak "the rest is silence" at his last moment, the very scene just after his death must be silent for a few seconds until Fortinbras and his soldiers appear on the stage. Q1"s silence hidden between lines might be able to have voice when it has a space of the stage. As Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor insist, Q1, if staged with speed, energy and talent, not only may provide us with evidence about the nature of a performing text in Shakespeare"s theatre, but may even, as theatre, be "not bad, but excellent"(37).
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