In 1823, Sir Henry Bunbury discovered a volume of first edition Shakespeare plays in a closet of his manor house. One stood out as extraordinary: a previously unknown text of Hamlet, known as Q1, which predated all other versions. Suddenly, the world had to grapple with a radically new version of Shakespeare’s best-known play. In his new book, Zachary Lesser explores the crucial differences between Q1 and the more familiar Hamlet, and the rich cultural significance of those differences. Lesser is Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication.