SOME NECESSARY QUESTION OF THE PLAY:

THE SO-CALLED UR-HAMLET

A Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of the Department

of Television, Radio, Film and Theatre

San Jose State University

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

by

Dale Lisa Flint

December 2003

ABSTRACT

SOME NECESSARY QUESTION OF THE PLAY:

THE SO-CALLED UR-HAMLET

By Dale Lisa Flint

The objectives of this Master's thesis are as follow: to explore the controversial historiography of the non-extant, pre-Shakespearean “Ur-Hamlet”; to determine the critical means by which the Ur-Hamlet's authorship has been attributed to Thomas Kyd; to examine the validity and pertinence of the Oxfordian claim; to re-evaluate the evidence that supports Shakespearean authorship; to champion the possibility of long-neglected alternate theories, such as collaboration; and to investigate the implications.  By integrating performance theory with traditional Shakespearean criticism, this thesis problematizes certain long-held assumptions in regards to creative process, authorship, and the ontology of an authentic Shakespearean text.  Concerned less with truth than with critical perception thereof, this thesis hopes to illuminate the reason why a work that arguably never existed remains one of the most highly underrated touchstones of orthodox Shakespearean scholarship.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Author's Note                                                                        vii                                           

Introduction: fome neceffary point in the Play                      1                     

Chapter One:  Foul Papers                                                     7                     

Chapter Two:  To Imitate the Kyd                                        33

Chapter Three:  Orthodoxy's First Line of Defense              67                   

Chapter Four:  Shakespeare in Rewrite                                  89       

Chapter Five:  "The Acting Version"                                     116     

Conclusion:  Some Necessary Question of the Play              145

Bibliography of Works Cited                                                 152

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