The Quarto of 1604, which we call Q₂, has the following title-page: _THE_ | Tragicall Historie of | HAMLET, | _Prince of Denmarke_. | By William Shakespeare. | Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much | againe as it was, according to the true and perfect | Coppie. | AT LONDON, | Printed by I. R. for N. L. and are to be sold at his | shoppe vnder Saint Dunstons Church in | Fleetstreet. 1604. The printer 'I. R.' was no doubt, as Mr Collier says, James Roberts, who had made an entry in the books of the Stationers' company as early as July 26, 1602, of 'A booke, The Revenge of Hamlett prince of Denmarke, as yt was latelie acted by the Lord Chamberleyn his servantes.' For some unknown reason the projected edition was delayed, and in the mean time the popularity of the play encouraged N. L., i.e. Nicholas Ling, and the other publisher, Trundell, to undertake a surreptitious edition. In the interval between the two editions Shakespeare seems to have changed the names of some of his Dramatis Personæ, substituting 'Polonius' for 'Corambis' and 'Reynaldo' for 'Montano.' He may also have changed the order of one or two scenes, and here and there erased or inserted a few lines, but we think that no substantial change was made, and that the chief differences between (Q₁) and Q₂ are only such as might be expected between a bona fide, and a mala fide, transcription. The Quarto of 1605, which we call Q₃, is not, properly speaking, a new edition, being printed from the same forms as Q₂, and differing from it no more than one copy of the same edition may differ from another. The title-page differs only in the date, where 1605 is substituted for 1604. Another Quarto, our Q₄, printed in 1611, bears a title-page which does not substantially differ from that of Q₃, except that it is said to be: 'Printed for _Iohn Smethwicke_, and are to be sold at his shoppe | in Saint Dunstons Church-yeard in Fleetstreet. | Under the Diall. 1611. |' Another Quarto, without date, is said on the title-page to be 'Newly imprinted and inlarged, according to the true | and perfect Copy lastly Printed,' and to be 'Printed by W. S. for _Iohn Smethwicke_.' Otherwise the title-page is identical with that of Q₄. Mr Collier supposes this undated Quarto to have been printed in 1607, because there is an entry in the Stationers' books of that year and no edition with that date is known to exist. We are convinced however that the undated Quarto was printed from that of 1611, and we have therefore called it Q₅. Another Quarto, printed 'by _R. Young_ for _John Smethwicke_,' was published in 1637. This we call Q₆. It is printed from Q₅, though the spelling is considerably modernized and the punctuation amended. The symbol Qq signifies the agreement of Q₂, Q₃, Q₄, Q₅ and Q₆.