Note return to page 1 David Garrick immediately established himself as the greatest Hamlet of his age when he first played the role at Drury Lane in 1742, and for the next thirty years he continued to play the Prince to enormous acclaim, using essentially the conservatively abridged acting text printed in Bell's edition. On the eve of his retirement, however, he finally succumbed to the temptation of rewriting the play to his own taste: “I have ventured to produce Hamlet with alterations”, he wrote to a friend in 1773, “it was the most imprudent thing I ever did in my life but I had sworn that I would not leave the stage until I had rescued that noble play from all the rubbish of the 5th act.” Garrick's version, first performed in late 1772 and abandoned forever after his death in 1779, indeed concentrates on shortening act 5, from which it cuts the Gravediggers, Ophelia's funeral, Osric and the fencing bout, leaving Laertes alive to inherit the crown in place of Fortinbras.

Note return to page 2 This Play being too long to be acted upon the Stage, such Lines as are left out in the Acting, are marked thus'.

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