Editing Hamlet (section)

===Shakespeare's day to the Interregnum===
Shakespeare almost certainly wrote the role of Hamlet for [[Richard Burbage]]. He was the chief tragedian of the [[Lord Chamberlain's Men]], with a capacious memory for lines and a wide emotional range.{{sfn|Taylor|2002|p=4}}{{sfn|Banham|1998|p=141}}{{efn|Hattaway asserts that "Richard Burbage ... played Hieronimo and also Richard III but then was the first Hamlet, Lear, and Othello"{{sfn|Hattaway|1982|p=91}} and Thomson argues that the identity of Hamlet as Burbage is built into the [[dramaturgy]] of several moments of the play: "we will profoundly misjudge the position if we do not recognise that, whilst this is Hamlet talking ''about'' the groundlings, it is also Burbage talking ''to'' the groundlings".{{sfn|Thomson|1983|p=24}} See also Thomson on the first player's beard.{{sfn|Thomson|1983|p=110}}}} Judging by the number of reprints, ''Hamlet'' appears to have been Shakespeare's fourth most popular play during his lifetime—only ''[[Henry IV, Part 1|Henry IV Part 1]]'', ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]'' and ''[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre|Pericles]]'' eclipsed it.{{sfn|Taylor|2002|p=18}} Shakespeare provides no clear indication of when his play is set; however, as Elizabethan actors performed at the [[Globe Theatre|Globe]] in contemporary dress on minimal sets, this would not have affected the staging.{{sfn|Taylor|2002|p=13}}

Firm evidence for specific early performances of the play is scant. It is sometimes argued that the crew of the ship ''[[Red Dragon (1595)|Red Dragon]]'', anchored off [[Sierra Leone]], performed ''Hamlet'' in September 1607;{{sfn|Thompson|Taylor|2006a|pp=53–55}}{{sfn|Chambers|1930|p=334}}{{sfn|Dawson|2002|p=176}} however, this claim is based on a 19th-century insert of a 'lost' passage into a period document, and is today widely regarded as a hoax, likely to have been perpetrated by [[John Payne Collier]].{{sfn|Kliman|2011}} More credible is that the play toured in Germany within five years of Shakespeare's death,{{sfn|Dawson|2002|p=176}} and that it was performed before [[James I of England|James I]] in 1619 and [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] in 1637.{{sfn|Pitcher|Woudhuysen|1969|p=204}} Oxford editor George Hibbard argues that, since the contemporary literature contains many allusions and references to ''Hamlet'' (only [[Falstaff]] is mentioned more, from Shakespeare), the play was surely performed with a frequency that the historical record misses.{{sfn|Hibbard|1987|p=17}}

All theatres were closed down by the [[Puritan]] government during the [[English Interregnum|Interregnum]].{{sfn|Marsden|2002|p=21}} Even during this time, however, playlets known as ''[[droll]]s'' were often performed illegally, including one called ''The Grave-Makers'' based on act 5, scene 1 of ''Hamlet''.{{sfn|Holland|2007|p=34}}