Newly imprinted and
enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and
perfect coppie. At London, Printed by I. R. for N. L., and are to be sold
at his shoppe under Saint Dunston's Church in Fleetstreet, 1604." This
impression was reissued in the following year, the title-page and a few
leaves at the end, sigs. N. and O., being fresh-printed, the sole
alteration in the former being the substitution of 1605 for 1604.
_Hamlet_ is not mentioned by Meres in 1598, and it could not have been
written before 1599, in which year the Globe was erected, there being a
clear allusion to that theatre in act ii, sc. 2. The tragedy continued to
be acted after Shakespeare's company commenced playing at the Blackfriars
Theatre, it being alluded to in a manuscript list, written in 1660,
of "some of the most ancient plays that were played at Blackfriars."
According to Downes, Sir William Davenant, "having seen Mr. Taylor of the
Black-Fryars Company act it, who, being instructed by the author, Mr.
Shaksepeur, taught Mr. Betterton in every particle of it."--_Roscius
Anglicanus_, 1708. Roberts, in his answer to Mr. Pope's _Preface on
Shakespeare_, 1729, thinks that Lowin was the original Hamlet.
The date of 1601 for the production of _Hamlet_ appears to suit the
internal evidence very well.
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