Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Presumably you're talking about the so-called "Bad Quarto" of "Hamlet", which is generally thought to have been written out from memory, either by a member of the audience, or a minor actor in the company?
In that, the famous "To be or not to be soliloquy begins:
To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all;
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes
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Yes, that's the one. I was relying on my own memory of it, which it seems was faulty. It does illustrate how the not quite right word can throw off a text I think. Granted most of us aren't trying to transcribe Shakespeare from memory, but I imagine many a 1st draft of a modern book reads just about as well.