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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet (/ ˈ h æ m l ɪ t /), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play.
Sep 28, 2024 · Hamlet, tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1599–1601 and published in a quarto edition in 1603 from an unauthorized text. Often considered the greatest drama of all time, the play tells the story of the troubled titular prince of Denmark.
- David Bevington
- Ancient Scandinavian Sagas
- Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques
- Montaigne's Essays
- The Literature of Melancholy
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Kyd and Shakespeare were the latest spinners of an age-old yarn originating in the ancient sagas of Scandinavia. It was written down in manuscript form in the twelfth century by the Danish scholar, Saxo Grammaticus, in his Historia Danicaand it finally found its way into print in 1514. It is the story of the murder of a Danish ruler by his brother ...
Elizabethan readers gained access to this story, in French, through its inclusion by Francois de Belleforest in his widely read Histoires Tragiquesin 1570. Belleforest made the significant addition of the queen's adultery with her brother-in-law, during her marriage to the king. Kyd's lost dramatic version of Belleforest's account was the next stag...
As he wrote Hamlet, Shakespeare must have found stimulating reading in the works of Montaigne. Hamlet's intellectual curiosity and wide-ranging philosophical questioning ally him with the French essayist. At the time of Hamlet's composition, Montaigne's Essayswere as yet unavailable in translation but we know from other instances of his use of sour...
Hamlet's melancholy would have struck a chord with many Elizabethans - books on melancholy were popular and widely read at the time. One particular example of such a book is Timothy Bright's Treatise on Melancholy, printed in 1586, in which the characteristics of the melancholy man resemble those of Hamlet as he struggles to come to terms with the ...
Learn when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and the stories that inspired him. Find out about the Stationers' Register, the lost play by Thomas Kyd, the Scandinavian sagas, Montaigne's Essays and the literature of melancholy.
Written during the first part of the seventeenth century (probably in 1600 or 1601), Hamlet was probably first performed in July 1602. It was first published in printed form in 1603 and appeared in an enlarged edition in 1604.
- Late at night, guards on the battlements of Denmark's Elsinore castle are met by Horatio, Prince Hamlet's friend from school. The guards describe a ghost they have seen that resembles Hamlet's father, the recently-deceased king.
- According to his plan, Hamlet begins to act strangely. He rejects Ophelia, while Claudius and Polonius, the royal attendant, spy on him. They had hoped to find the reason for Hamlet's sudden change in behaviour but could not.
- At the performance, Hamlet watches Claudius closely to see how he reacts. The play provokes Claudius, and he interrupts the action by storming out.
- Hamlet is sent to England, supposedly as an ambassador, just as King Fortinbras of Norway crosses Denmark with an army to attack Poland. During his journey, Hamlet discovers Claudius has a plan to have him killed once he arrives.
Written by William Shakespeare. Dated around 1600. Tragedy. Key characters include Hamlet, Claudius, Ophelia, Gertrude, Polonius and Laertes. Prince Hamlet of Denmark is shocked that his mother, the Queen, has married his uncle so soon after the death of his father, the King.
The first printed text of the play (1603) boasts it has been performed in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge as well as in London, and one contemporary commentator, Anthony Scolaker, uses it as a touchstone for good writing, which ‘should please all, like Prince Hamlet’.
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