William Shakespeare
Folger Shakespeare Library · 1992
For almost everyone, the Folger is the right Hamlet. It puts the notes on the left-hand page facing the text, so you glance across for a gloss without losing the line — far less intimidating than a page crowded with footnotes. Cheap, clear, and the classroom standard for good reason. This is where I'd start.
Arden (3rd series) · 2006
The Arden Third Series is the scholar's Hamlet — an enormous introduction and footnotes that cover every crux. It's built on the 1604 Second Quarto, with the First Quarto and Folio handled in a companion volume (Hamlet is the rare play that survives in three quite different early texts). Indispensable for study; heavy going for a first read.
Oxford Shakespeare · 1987
Oxford's edition, edited by G. R. Hibbard, is the strong middle between Folger and Arden — serious scholarship in one affordable volume, with an excellent introduction. One quirk worth knowing: it's based on the Folio text and moves some Quarto-only passages to an appendix, so a few familiar lines sit out of place.
No Fear Shakespeare · 2003
No Fear puts Shakespeare's original on one side and a plain modern paraphrase on the other. Purists wince, and the modern version is a crutch, not the real thing — you lose the poetry. But if the language has stopped you cold before, it can get you through, and you can lean on it less as you go. Honest about what it is: training wheels.
Free (public domain) · 1623
Hamlet is in the public domain, so the full text is free — the Folger's own digital edition, MIT's, Project Gutenberg. No glosses to help with the archaic words, which Hamlet has plenty of, but for sampling or re-reading a scene, it's right there at no cost.
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