Early Modern German Shakespeare: Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet

Kareen Seidler holds a PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her MPhil thesis on Romio und Julieta was awarded the Martin-Lehnert-Award of the German Shakespeare Society.Lukas Erne is Professor of English Literature at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He is author of Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist (2003). He has taught at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, at the University of Neuchâtel and, as Visiting Professor, at Yale University.

• List of IllustrationsPrefatory NoteIntroductionThe Relationship of Der Bestrafte Brudermord to HamletOrigins: The Early Seventeenth CenturyThe Ur-Hamlet, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, and the Textual Origins of Der Bestrafte BrudermordOrigins: The Later Seventeenth and the Eighteenth CenturyStage History, Early Modern and ModernModern Editorial HistoryA Note on the TranslationTranslationA Note on the Annotation and CollationAnnotationCollationAppendix 1: Plot Correspondences between Der Bestrafte Brudermord and HamletAppendix 2: The Relationship of Der Bestrafte Brudermord to the Texts of HamletReferences

The two plays make for fascinating and entertaining reading, and they merit consideration in their own right, but they will also be valuable to anyone with an interest in Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, the reception and alteration of Shakespeare’s plays and characters, and the relationship between English and continental European theatre traditions more generally … The plays’ presentation in the Arden house style provides Brudermord and Romio und Julieta with a platform for further serious scholarly enquiry, whilst the quality of the translations and the appeal of the playtexts promise to establish them as firm favourites in the extended Shakespeare canon.