Now, Gods, Stand Up For Bastards: The 1603 “Good Quarto” Hamlet

This essay examines the relationship between the 1603 Q1 Bad Quarto Hamlet and the two authoritative Hamlet versions (1604-5 Q2 Second Quarto and the 1623 F1 First Folio). The analysis focuses on Shakespeare’s use of complex patterns of composition in the structural framework of corresponding passages, and the movement of parallel phrases between equivalent rhetorical systems that bridge the variant texts. Based on a consistent and systematic pattern of alteration occurring between the variants, the essay challenges the theories of memorial reconstruction and abridgment, and further attributes the alterations to authorial revision.