Hamlet : a Tragedy by William Shakespeare Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK, OFTEN SHORTENED TO HAMLET, IS A TRAGEDY WRITTEN BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AT AN UNCERTAIN DATE BETWEEN 1599 AND 1602.

• Set in Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet. Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brother’s widow.
• It has inspired many other writers–from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and Iris Murdoch–and has been described as “the world’s most filmed story after Cinderella”.The story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet was derived from the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum, as subsequently retold by the 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet, though some scholars believe he himself wrote the Ur-Hamlet, later revising it to create the version of Hamlet we now have.
• He almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare’s time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by numerous highly acclaimed actors in each successive century.
• Three different early versions of the play are extant: the First Quarto (Q1, 1603); the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604); and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The play’s structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny. One such example is the centuries-old debate about Hamlet’s hesitation to kill his uncle, which some see as merely a plot device to prolong the action, but which others argue is a dramatisation of the complex philosophical and ethical issues that surround cold-blooded murder, calculated revenge, and thwarted desire.
• More recently, psychoanalytic critics have examined Hamlet’s unconscious desires, while feminist critics have re-evaluated and attempted to rehabilitate the often maligned characters of Ophelia and Gertrude.

About the autor

• William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He was born on 26 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His father was a successful local businessman and his mother was the daughter of a landowner. Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and nicknamed the Bard of Avon. He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain.

Quotes

• “O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, …
• “Listen to many, speak to a few.” …
• “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, …
• “This above all: to thine own self be true, …
• “…though I am native here. …
• “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” …
• “That one may smile and smile and be a villain.”