Zachary Lesser is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication: Readings in the English Book Trade.

• Introduction. The Ur-HamletChapter 1. As Originally Written by Shakespeare: Textual Bibliography and Textual BiographyChapter 2. Contrary Matters: The Power of the Gloss and the History of an ObscenityChapter 3. Enter the Ghost in His Night Gowne: Behind Gertrude's BedChapter 4. Conscience Makes Cowards: The Disintegration and Reintegration of ShakespeareConclusion. Q1 in the Library at BabelNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Lesser's great achievement . . . is to show why textual bibliography matters. . . . This highly original book thrusts bibliography up from the footnotes and into the footlights, by showing in fascinating detail how the bibliographical algebra of Q1, Q2, and F has made a crucial contribution to the interpretation and performance of Hamlet." (Times Literary Supplement) "Lesser's engrossing book makes textual study alluring even to the nonpractitioner. . . . [He] puts lyrical energy into excavating old texts. . . . [His] study excites and edifies." (Choice) "Lesser's book . . . performs two valuable services: (i) exploring in detail the arguments of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century textual scholars working on Hamlet, and (ii) reexamining the Q1/Q2/F differences to come up with fresh explanations for them. . . . A substantial merit of Lesser's book is the minute detail with which he traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas as they were shaped by nineteenth-century scholarly competitiveness and the emergence of new facts and hypotheses. But more valuable still are Lesser's own contributions to the debates about the textual and theatrical relationships of Q1/Q2/F." (The Review of English Studies) "Zachary Lesser's fascinating book about Q1 Hamlet details what happened after the discovery of this black sheep in Shakespeare's textual family. The rich cast of characters here, including both bit players and eminent scholars, makes the story a Stoppard play waiting to be written." (Douglas Bruster, University of Texas at Austin) "An extraordinary work of interpretation and an extraordinary work of literary history." (Tiffany Stern, University of Oxford)

Zachary Lesser is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication: Readings in the English Book Trade.

• Introduction. The Ur-HamletChapter 1. As Originally Written by Shakespeare: Textual Bibliography and Textual BiographyChapter 2. Contrary Matters: The Power of the Gloss and the History of an ObscenityChapter 3. Enter the Ghost in His Night Gowne: Behind Gertrude's BedChapter 4. Conscience Makes Cowards: The Disintegration and Reintegration of ShakespeareConclusion. Q1 in the Library at BabelNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Lesser's great achievement . . . is to show why textual bibliography matters. . . . This highly original book thrusts bibliography up from the footnotes and into the footlights, by showing in fascinating detail how the bibliographical algebra of Q1, Q2, and F has made a crucial contribution to the interpretation and performance of Hamlet." (Times Literary Supplement) "Lesser's engrossing book makes textual study alluring even to the nonpractitioner. . . . [He] puts lyrical energy into excavating old texts. . . . [His] study excites and edifies." (Choice) "Lesser's book . . . performs two valuable services: (i) exploring in detail the arguments of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century textual scholars working on Hamlet, and (ii) reexamining the Q1/Q2/F differences to come up with fresh explanations for them. . . . A substantial merit of Lesser's book is the minute detail with which he traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas as they were shaped by nineteenth-century scholarly competitiveness and the emergence of new facts and hypotheses. But more valuable still are Lesser's own contributions to the debates about the textual and theatrical relationships of Q1/Q2/F." (The Review of English Studies) "Zachary Lesser's fascinating book about Q1 Hamlet details what happened after the discovery of this black sheep in Shakespeare's textual family. The rich cast of characters here, including both bit players and eminent scholars, makes the story a Stoppard play waiting to be written." (Douglas Bruster, University of Texas at Austin) "An extraordinary work of interpretation and an extraordinary work of literary history." (Tiffany Stern, University of Oxford)

Zachary Lesser is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication: Readings in the English Book Trade.

• Introduction. The Ur-HamletChapter 1. As Originally Written by Shakespeare: Textual Bibliography and Textual BiographyChapter 2. Contrary Matters: The Power of the Gloss and the History of an ObscenityChapter 3. Enter the Ghost in His Night Gowne: Behind Gertrude's BedChapter 4. Conscience Makes Cowards: The Disintegration and Reintegration of ShakespeareConclusion. Q1 in the Library at BabelNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Lesser's great achievement . . . is to show why textual bibliography matters. . . . This highly original book thrusts bibliography up from the footnotes and into the footlights, by showing in fascinating detail how the bibliographical algebra of Q1, Q2, and F has made a crucial contribution to the interpretation and performance of Hamlet." (Times Literary Supplement) "Lesser's engrossing book makes textual study alluring even to the nonpractitioner. . . . [He] puts lyrical energy into excavating old texts. . . . [His] study excites and edifies." (Choice) "Lesser's book . . . performs two valuable services: (i) exploring in detail the arguments of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century textual scholars working on Hamlet, and (ii) reexamining the Q1/Q2/F differences to come up with fresh explanations for them. . . . A substantial merit of Lesser's book is the minute detail with which he traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas as they were shaped by nineteenth-century scholarly competitiveness and the emergence of new facts and hypotheses. But more valuable still are Lesser's own contributions to the debates about the textual and theatrical relationships of Q1/Q2/F." (The Review of English Studies) "Zachary Lesser's fascinating book about Q1 Hamlet details what happened after the discovery of this black sheep in Shakespeare's textual family. The rich cast of characters here, including both bit players and eminent scholars, makes the story a Stoppard play waiting to be written." (Douglas Bruster, University of Texas at Austin) "An extraordinary work of interpretation and an extraordinary work of literary history." (Tiffany Stern, University of Oxford)