gloss on Hamlet as a play with ‘a set of spatial reductions’ (p. 43) is particularly astute. Elden’s work on several history plays (King John, Richard II, Henry V and Edward III) opens up a discussion of political, economic and legal concepts of territory, asking questions such as ‘What is the relation between political control of land and its possession? What does possession entail and allow?’ (p. 88). For the most part, Elden offers in-depth readings of Shakespeare’s language and ideas in chapters that focus on one or two plays. Weaker chapters on colonial territories and measuring territories cover a larger number of plays, rather than focused case studies, and subsequent readings can feel rushed. The balance between the quotation of primary text, secondary criticism and the author’s own analysis is sometimes out of kilter; I was left wanting more of the latter. Yet Elden’s intellectual ambition and risk-taking is appealing. He brings into dialogue a wide range of subjects – colonialism, navigation, cartography, military technology – that may well be covered in more detail elsewhere but do benefit from being examined alongside one another. In the book’s ‘Coda’, Elden notes the ‘significant transition’ (p. 240) England undergoes during Shakespeare’s career, which spanned the latter part of Elizabeth I’s reign and the early years of James I’s. Elizabeth and James had different ideas about some of the key concepts Elden examines, colonialism, for instance, and ruled under shifting social and economic circumstances. More of a sense of the nuances between Elizabethan and Jacobean conceptualization of territory would have been welcome throughout the book. Yet, this criticism is perhaps unfair to a book that is groundbreaking in its dual aims of illuminating Shakespeare’s plays, while also examining territory, a contested, complex and transhistorical concept, and thereby appealing to a wide number of scholarly audiences.

中文翻译：

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书评：北极：自然与文化

哈姆雷特（Hamlet）的光彩与“一系列空间缩小”的戏剧（第43页）格外敏锐。埃尔登（Elden）在几部历史剧中的著作（约翰国王，理查德二世，亨利五世和爱德华三世）开启了对领土政治，经济和法律概念的讨论，提出了诸如“对土地的政治控制与拥有之间的关系是什么？ ？拥有权意味着什么？” （第88页）。在大多数情况下，埃尔登都会在针对一两个剧本的章节中深入阅读莎士比亚的语言和思想。关于殖民地领土和测量领土的较弱章节涵盖了大量戏剧，而不是重点案例研究，其后的阅读内容可能会显得仓促。引用主语，次要批评和作者自己的分析之间的平衡有时会失灵；我只剩下想要后者了。然而，埃尔登的理性抱负和冒险精神却很有吸引力。他参与了广泛的话题对话，包括殖民主义，航海，制图，军事技术，这些话题在其他地方可能会更详细地介绍，但确实可以从彼此一起进行考察中受益。在书的“柯达”中，埃尔登指出英格兰在莎士比亚生涯中经历的“重大转变”（第240页），涵盖了伊丽莎白一世在位后期和詹姆斯一世的早年时期。伊丽莎白（Elizabeth）和詹姆斯（James）对于埃尔登（Elden）研究的一些关键概念有不同的看法，例如殖民主义，并在不断变化的社会和经济环境下进行统治。在本书中，应该更多地了解伊丽莎白时代和雅各布时代的领土概念之间的细微差别。然而，