"HAMLET" FROM HAMLET
by Manuel Ángel Conejero
MANUEL ÁNGEL CONEJERO
EDITORIAL BOARD GIORGIO MELCHIORI
ROGER PRINGLE
MARIA ANGELA TEMPERA
CANDIDO PÉREZ GALLEGO
JENARO TALÉNS
AGUSTIN MUÑOZ ALONSO
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The Notebooks of the Shakespeare Foundation of Spain are conceived
as a miscellaneous series that provides space for papers, articles, books,
scripts, or any other kind of written document relating to theatre,
language and communication. Although words like language, communication,
theatre, rhetoric, translation are well known to the general reader, the
relationship between them and the redefinitions and reinterpretations of
their contents and uses in the light of the practical and theoretical investigation
carried out in our institution, The Shakespeare Foundation of Spain, is,
in our opinion, a strong enough reason to start this editorial project.
Thus these publications are the result of the research carried out by members
and collaborators of The Shakespeare Foundation of Spain, either in the
team of translators (Shakespeare Institute), the teachers of the International
School of English and Communication, the actors and directors of the theatre
company or the teachers of our Drama School. Many published translations
and critical editions of Shakespeare’s plays, and many theatre productions
and workshops are part of our heritage as an academic institution. Translating
as much of this heritage and experience as possible into printed material
in an international context is the main purpose of the present notebooks.
Manuel Ángel Conejero
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Part of this essay was published in the third volume of En torno a Shakespeare (Valencia, 1987), the collection of critical studies which brought together different contributions to the seminar VIII Encuentros Shakespeare, December 1985. That article, entitled “Hamlet from Hamlet (I): An example of linguistic composition?” was a complete and finished study, going from the beginning of the play until the performance of The Moustrap in Act III, precisely until ‘Lady, shall I lie in your lap’ (III.ii.109). “The rest of the tragedy should and must be left for another oppotunity” read the last paragraph of that article. And that opportunity, gentle reader, has taken form in what has come into your hands.
After various drafts and re-writings, the completion of this essay that carries on a survey of the whole play of Hamlet by using the same approach, was done in 1990, and its publication has finally occurred on occasion of launching these Notebooks of the Shakespeare Foundation of Spain.