Modern Print Editions & Editing Statements
The Oxford Shakespeare
"This Oxford Shakespeare edition of Hamlet represents a radically new text of the best known and most widely discussed of all Shakespearean tragedies. Arguing that the text currently accepted is not, in fact, the most authoritative version of the play, this new edition turns to the First Folio of 1623--Shakespeare's "fair copy"--that has been preserved for us in the Second Quarto. Introducing fresh theatrical momentum, this revision provides, as Shakespeare intended, a better, more practical acting script..." -- Amazon.ca description
No Fear Shakespeare
SparkNotes' print edition (2003) of Hamlet, part of their "No Fear Shakespeare" series, places "the complete text of Hamlet on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation [i.e. a modernized paraphrase] on the right." I could not find any reference to which version of Hamlet was used as the base text, but I would assume it to be a modern version of the play. This edition, targeted towards students, emphasizes accessibility as the primary objective. Although some might argue it allows students the option to ignore the poetic language of Hamlet, this might not necessarily be the case. It could, perhaps, encourage students to compare the two and consider how form affects content. SparkNotes also has an online version of "No Fear Hamlet."
The Folger Shakespeare
"The Present edition is based upon a fresh examination of the early printed texts rather than upon any modern edition. It is designed both for those who prefer the traditional text of Hamlet, which is the combination of Second Quarto and First Folio, and for those who prefer to regard the Second Quarto and First Folio as distinct versions of the play. The present edition resembles most other modern editions in offering its readers a text of the Second Quarto combined with as much of the First Folio as it has been possible to include. It also resembles most other editions in its efforts to correct what are believed to be errors or deficiencies in the Second Quarto by substituting or introducing alternatives either from the First Folio or from the editorial tradition. Yet the present edition is unique in marking all passages that are found only in the Second Quarto and all words and passages found only in the Folio. Thus it becomes possible for a reader to use this book to discover the major and even many of the minor differences between the Second Quarto and First Folio versions of Hamlet. This edition ignores the First Quarto version because the First Quarto is so widely different from the Second Quarto and the Folio." (Mowat and Werstine)
The Norton Anthology of Shakespeare
"The primary task that the editors of the Norton Shakespeare set themselves was to present the modern-spelling Oxford Complete Works in a way that would make them more accessible to modern readers...In addition to writing introductions, textual notes and brief bibliographies for each of the works, the Norton editors provide glosses and footnotes designed to facilitate comprehension...Our general policy is to gloss only those words that cannot be found in an ordinary dictionary or whose meanings have altered out of recognition." (Greenblatt 77)
"Another major departure from the Oxford text is Norton's printing of the so-called Additional Passages, especially in Hamlet. Consistent with their decision not to conflate quarto and Folio texts, the Oxford editors adhere to their control text for Hamlet, the Folio, and print those passages that appear only in the Second Quarto in an appendix at the end of the play. As explained at length in the Textual Note [found on page 110], the Norton editors decided not to follow this course, but instead chose a different way of demarcating the quarto and Folio texts (inserting the quarto passages, indented, in the body of the text), one that makes it easier to see how the quarto passages functioned in a version of the play that Shakespeare also authored" (Greenblatt 78)
The Arden Shakespeare
"This edition is in two volumes, which print Q2 in the first and Q1 and F in the second. Ideally, we would have printed the three texts either in one volume (printing them in the order in which they were originally published -- Q1, Q2, F) or in three, but a variety of practical considerations has led us to settle for a two volume format...we believe that each of the three texts has sufficient merit to be read and studied on its own. We fervently hope that readers will study both volumes, experience the imaginative power of all three texts, and explore and weigh the scholarly debates surrounding their origins...
...And we also have to concede that, if one were forced to choose just one of the three early texts of Hamlet as, on the balance of the evidence, the most likely to have authority, it would have to be Q2. This is because (a) evidence is strong, and there is general agreement among scholars, that Q2 derives from an authorial manuscript; (b) few scholars in the last hundred years have ever claimed that Q1 is based on an authorial manuscript, no one has ever claimed that it is the most authoritative of the three texts, and Q2 was printed during Shakespeare's lifetime not long after the play was first staged and apparently as a deliberate attempt on the part of Shakespeare's company, and presumably with his consent, to correct and displace Q1; and (c) forceful and, for many, persuasive as the arguments are that F derives from an authorial revision of the play, or a more 'theatrical' text than Q2, there is less than general agreement on either of those points, and, were it to be there, agreement on either point would not necessarily be a reason for attributing more authority to F than to Q2." (Thompson and Taylor 11-12)
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