Mark Farnsworth "Claudius's Conspirators: Changes in the Roles of Ophelia, Laertes, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern in Q2 and F1 Hamlet"

Many scholars, including Paul Werstine, Bernice Kliman, and Steven Urkowitz, have done work on the importance of variations among early printed versions of Hamlet. Without examining the origin of these differences, my essay will posit Claudius as a locus for disparities in the portrayal of characters in the Second Quarto and First Folio editions of the text. Changes in Claudius's character, with him being more blunt and authoritative in the Second Quarto and more subtle and manipulative in the First Folio, appear as he interacts with the people he enlists to help him surveil and control Hamlet. His "conspirators" also are also depicted differently across the versions, in ways that relate--at least in part--to how the king treats them. Editors should be aware of the distinguishable characters that emerge over the course of these two texts. Choosing which version to follow at a particular moment without regard to how it relates to larger issues of character differentiation could obfuscate the delineations that I argue the texts consistently present.