Shakespeare's Hamlet, regarded by many as "the world's most famous play by the world's most famous writer," is one of the most complex, demanding, discussed, and influential literary texts in English. As a means of access to this play, this unique collection of primary materials and commentary will help student and teacher explore historical, literary, theatrical, social, and cultural issues related to the play. In an approach unique for this series, Corum guides the reader through a literary analysis of Hamlet's options. He examines the popular theatres of the day in which Shakespeare and his company first produced Hamlet and discusses the genre of tragedy in which it is written. Through judicious selection of primary historical documents, the work provides contexts for understanding Hamlet's melancholy, the ghost of Hamlet's father, the theme of revenge, and Hamlet's feigned madness. The chapters contain a variety of materials, many of which are not readily available elsewhere: essays, poems, histories, treatises, official documents, stories, religious tracts, homilies, memoirs, engravings, village records, and fifteen illustrations.
本书为全英文版。

Illustrations
Introduction
1.Method and Social Geography
FROM: Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532)
2.Theatre and Tragedy
FROM: Phillip Stubbes, The Anatomie of Abuses: Contayning a Discoverie, or briefe Summarie of such Notable Vices and Impeofections, as now raigne in many Christian Countreyes of the Worlde (1583)
An official petition submitted by the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen of the City of London to Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council 28 July 1597
Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penilesse his supplication to the Diuell (1592)
3.Literary Analysis: Hamlet's Options
4.Man, Melancholy, and Suicide
5.Enter Ghost...Exit Ghost
6.Revenge(,)the Crime
7.Antic Dispositions:The Hero as Fool
8.Gertrude,Thy Name Is Woman
9.Over Ophelia's Dead Body
Conclusion
Index
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