I’m looking at the text on Genius.com. I used to photocopy pages from my New Penguin edition but this has become easier. I just look at it on my smartphone and boom. I know the next line.
The problem with this convenience, though, is that it has no context. There are no indications of where Genius pulled their text from – which edition, which copy. There are major variations between editions, especially with this play, as there are three original sources – the first folio, the 2nd Quarto and the 1st, known as the Bad Quarto. And almost every edition is some combination of all three – cobbled together by an editor. But who edited the Genius text?
I mean, we, the Genius users, can edit the notes – but the actual text?
There are none of the deep cut textual notations that are characteristic of the Arden edition – so there is nothing to clue us in to editorial choices or variations.
I’m wondering about this now because the stage direction of the funeral processions entrance happens right before this line in the Genius “edition.” Is it always thus?
I imagine there are editions that might read: Here comes the King, the Queen, the courtiers.
But this edition has chosen (or not chosen, just pulled from some unknown source) to set the king apart from the rest. To insert a period where there might, in other cases, be a comma.
I might need to look at some actual editions.
The Hamlet Project 