Textual history and analysis of the soliloquies in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze a fascinating and legitimate theatrical device, the soliloquy, and to offer textual conclusions, drawn from comparing the variant forms of the Hamlet soliloquies, as additional evidence for certain bibliographic theories attempting to reconstruct the manuscript behind each printed version of the play. I believe that this study is justified not only in view of what it can add to Shakespearean scholarship, but also in view of what it can delineate about the origin and method of soliloquy.