This book is part of the "Everyman Shakespeare" series, providing facing-page text and notes, a chronology of Shakespeare's life and times and a selection of critical and theatrical responses to "Hamlet" over the centuries. The "Everyman" texts preserve the way Shakespeare's lines were meant to be spoken as well as their meaning. Derived from the earliest authoritative printings, they retain original spellings and punctuations which preserve puns and and wordplay often lost. Sir John Gielgud, Zoe Caldwell, Ian Richardson, Jeremy Irons and other established actors, actresses and theatre directors have written forewards describing the plays in actual performance. John Andrews's introductions provide up-to-the-minute interpretation of the structure, atmosphere and content of each play and comment on sources and influences.