Editing Hamlet (section)

===Restoration and 18th century===
[[File:Hamlet, Drury Lane Edition.jpg|thumb|Title page and frontispiece for ''Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Tragedy. As it is now acted at the Theatres-Royal in Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden. London, 1776'']]
The play was revived early in the [[English Restoration|Restoration]]. When the existing stock of pre-[[English Civil War|civil war]] plays was divided between the two newly created [[Patent theatre|patent theatre companies]], ''Hamlet'' was the only Shakespearean favourite that [[William Davenant|Sir William Davenant's]] [[Duke's Company]] secured.{{sfn|Marsden|2002|pp=21–22}} It became the first of Shakespeare's plays to be presented with movable [[Flats (theatre)|flats]] painted with generic scenery behind the [[Proscenium|proscenium arch]] of [[Lincoln's Inn Fields|Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre]].{{efn|[[Samuel Pepys]] records his delight at the novelty of ''Hamlet'' "done with scenes".{{sfn|Thompson|Taylor|1996|p=57}}}} This new stage convention highlighted the frequency with which Shakespeare shifts dramatic location, encouraging the recurrent criticism of his failure to maintain [[Classical unities|unity of place]].{{sfn|Taylor|1989|p=16}} In the title role, Davenant cast [[Thomas Betterton]], who continued to play the Dane until he was 74.{{sfn|Thompson|Taylor|2006a|pp=98–99}} [[David Garrick]] at [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] produced a version that adapted Shakespeare heavily; he declared: "I had sworn I would not leave the stage till I had rescued that noble play from all the rubbish of the fifth act. I have brought it forth without the grave-digger's trick, Osrick, & the fencing match".{{efn|Letter to Sir William Young, 10 January 1773, quoted by Uglow.{{sfn|Uglow|1977|p=473}}}} The first actor known to have played Hamlet in North America is Lewis Hallam Jr., in the [[American Company]]'s production in Philadelphia in 1759.{{sfn|Morrison|2002|p=231}}

[[File:Garrick as Hamlet.jpg|thumb|left|[[David Garrick]] expresses Hamlet's shock at his first sighting of the ghost (artist: unknown).]]

[[John Philip Kemble]] made his Drury Lane debut as Hamlet in 1783.{{sfn|Moody|2002|p=41}} His performance was said to be 20 minutes longer than anyone else's, and his lengthy pauses provoked the suggestion by [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]] that "music should be played between the words".{{sfn|Moody|2002|p=44}} [[Sarah Siddons]] was the first actress known to play Hamlet; many women have since played him as a [[breeches role]], to great acclaim.{{sfn|Gay|2002|p=159}} In 1748, [[Alexander Sumarokov]] wrote a Russian adaptation that focused on Prince Hamlet as the embodiment of an opposition to Claudius's tyranny—a treatment that would recur in Eastern European versions into the 20th century.{{sfn|Dawson|2002|pp=185–187}} In the years following America's independence, [[Thomas Abthorpe Cooper]], the young nation's leading tragedian, performed ''Hamlet'' among other plays at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and at the [[Park Theatre (Manhattan)|Park Theatre]] in New York. Although chided for "acknowledging acquaintances in the audience" and "inadequate memorisation of his lines", he became a national celebrity.{{sfn|Morrison|2002|pp=232–233}}