This book approaches Shakespeare as utterly a man of the theatre, a professional actor before he was a playwright and a resident dramatist who knew intimately the actors for whom he wrote. It continues by ÔApproaching HamletÕ in that light, and as a revenge tragedy deliberately overloaded with complications. The middle chapters look in detail at the ÔActors and PlayersÕ of the drama, starting with the Ghost and ending with Ôthe best actors in the worldÕ, and at ShakespeareÕs favourite ÔActs and DevicesÕ as deployed within it. A final chapter considers Hamlet and Twelfth Night, written and premiered in close succession, as an unexpectedly resonant pair, a surprisingly funny revenge tragedy and a surprisingly bleak revenge comedy that for the first audiences would have complemented one another. The annotated Bibliography includes the current major editions of Hamlet, the major film-adaptations, and a selection of both the best criticism and the most useful websites.