shakescene:

the fact that the first quarto version of hamlet was pirated is perhaps too much for me. because it implies some elizabeathan asshole sat at the back of an original performance of hamlet and, for four hours, took down everything he could hear. just rapid-fire writing in old ass english. but then also taking it upon themself to add a random subplot in which horatio and gertrude are also in a conspiracy to kill the king? and that ultimately this poor poor bastard’s efforts were FRUITLESS because it made the play look so bad that shakespeare’s contemporaries were like “we have to realease the real quarto or people are going to make fun of you.” i will never be able to stop thinking this