The Second Quarto publication of ''Hamlet'' has no word before ''flints,'' and the First Folio has "Shardes," which would be "shards" in modern spelling. However, in a search of the Shakespeare canon, I find that Shakespeare never used the word "shards" in that way in any other of his writing. | The Second Quarto publication of ''Hamlet'' has no word before ''flints,'' and the First Folio has "Shardes," which would be "shards" in modern spelling. However, in a search of the Shakespeare canon, I find that Shakespeare never used the word "shards" in that way in any other of his writing. |