Hamlet, A Longman Cultural Edition, 2nd edition

From Longman's new Cultural Edition series, Hamlet, edited by Constance Jordan, includes the play and contextual materials from the era of Shakespeare.

This edition represents Shakespeare's text as it appears in the most authoritative of early editions, the Folio, published in 1623, and it supplies students with useful footnotes to the interpretation of the text. It also includes brief samples of works by Shakespeare's contemporaries in a section entitled Contexts; which will help students understand the historical setting and cultural ideas that helped shape the meaning of Shakespeare's play. By listening to these voices from the past, students can approach the play with some knowledge of why Hamlet asks the questions he does and of why the character himself, the creation of a distant century, also seems so much a part of our own world.

The Longman Cultural Edition series is composed of teaching texts edited by prominent scholars. In addition to the recently published Cultural Editions Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, and Othello, titles in the series for this year include Dickens' Hard Times, Beowulf, and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

• Includes Hamlet, the Folio Edition, published in 1623.

• Contexts include a selection of essays on key issues addressed in the play: descriptions of the widely credited spirit world; accounts of the disease of melancholia; the debates about purgatory, both Catholic and Protestant; prohibitions against “wild justice” of revenge; and analyses of the causes of suicide, a mortal sin. To illustrate the varied responses to Hamlet on both the page and the stage, critical commentary and discussions of performances, drawn from the three centuries since composition and first performances of Hamlet, are included.

• New “In Context” material includes a much larger selection of early modern works important for understanding early modern English culture.   By interpreting the play in relation to early modern history *and* to the concerns of the present, students can discover new topics for discussion and literary analysis.  
• New texts on Spiritual Life illustrate contemporary beliefs in the existence of spirits, ghosts, and supernatural beings as well as clerical control of impostors.   These texts highlight how human psychology was understood in religious terms during Shakespeare’s time, and will help students decide how well Hamlet acts the part, or, conversely, how troubled he really is.  
• New selections on Purgatory represent the historic differences between Catholic and Protestant beliefs and the resistance to state control of religion.   Teachers can refer to the texts describing and also denying Purgatory to illustrate how terribly confusing Hamlet's situation is.  
• New selections covering Revenge show how its prohibition was met by recourse to the provisions in Common Law.   Students can trace the tension throughout the play as Hamlet debates on kinds of revenge; despite (perhaps because of) its prohibition, revenge is Shakespeare's hot topic.  
• New texts on Suicide reveal how the church and the law declared suicides were "self-murderers," yet moralists and philosophers who treated the subject were very sympathetic to cases of suicide.   These selections highlight how Shakespeare draws on ideas on suicide to show that Hamlet's preoccupation with it is part of his search for the meaning of life. 
• Improved formatting and larger typeface enhance the overall read-ability and accessibility of the play. 
• Right-hand margins have been justified to allow greater space for students to insert marginal notes.