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= Hamlet =
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Introduction
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'The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark', often shortened to
'Hamlet' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime
between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in
Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact
revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father
in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother. 'Hamlet' is
considered among the "most powerful and influential tragedies in the
English language", with a story capable of "seemingly endless
retelling and adaptation by others." It is widely considered one of
the greatest plays of all time. 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
passages missing from the others.
Many works have been pointed to as possible sources for Shakespeare's
play, from ancient Greek tragedies to Elizabethan dramas. The editors
of the Arden Shakespeare question the idea of "source hunting",
pointing out that it presupposes that authors always require ideas
from other works for their own, and suggests that no author can have
an original idea or be an originator. When Shakespeare wrote, there
were many stories about sons avenging the murder of their fathers, and
many about clever avenging sons pretending to be foolish in order to
outsmart their foes. This would include the story of the ancient
Roman, Lucius Junius Brutus, which Shakespeare apparently knew, as
well as the story of Amleth, which was preserved in Latin by
13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his 'Gesta Danorum', and
printed in Paris in 1514. The Amleth story was subsequently adapted
and then published in French in 1570 by the 16th-century scholar
François de Belleforest. It has a number of plot elements and major
characters in common with Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', and lacks others
that are found in Shakespeare. Belleforest's story was first published
in English in 1608, after 'Hamlet' had been written, though it is
possible that Shakespeare had encountered it in the French-language
version.
Characters
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* Hamletson of the late king and nephew of the present king, Claudius
* ClaudiusKing of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle and brother to the former
king
* GertrudeQueen of Denmark and Hamlet's mother
* Poloniuschief counsellor to the king
* OpheliaPolonius's daughter
* Horatiofriend of Hamlet
* LaertesPolonius's son
* Voltemand and Corneliuscourtiers
* Rosencrantz and Guildensterncourtiers, friends of Hamlet
* Osrica courtier
* Marcellusan officer
* Bernardoan officer (spelled Barnardo or Barnard in quarto versions)
* Franciscoa soldier
* ReynaldoPolonius's servant
* Ghostthe ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet
* Fortinbrasprince of Norway
* Gravediggersa pair of sextons
* Player King, Player Queen, Lucianus, etc.players
Act I
=======
Prince Hamlet of Denmark is the son of the recently deceased King
Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and
successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude,
Hamlet's mother, and took the throne for himself. Denmark has a
long-standing feud with neighbouring Norway, in which King Hamlet slew
King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle some years ago. Although Denmark
defeated Norway and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbras's
infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead
Norwegian king's son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent.
On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle,
the sentries Bernardo and Marcellus discuss a ghost resembling the
late King Hamlet which they have recently seen, and bring Prince
Hamlet's friend Horatio as a witness. After the ghost appears again,
the three vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed.
The court gathers the next day, and King Claudius and Queen Gertrude
discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius. Claudius
grants permission for Polonius's son Laertes to return to school in
France, and he sends envoys to inform the King of Norway about
Fortinbras. Claudius also questions Hamlet regarding his continuing to
grieve for his father, and forbids him to return to his university in
Wittenberg. After the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his father's
death and his mother's hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from
Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself.
As Polonius's son Laertes prepares to depart for France, Polonius
offers him advice that culminates in the maxim "to thine own self be
true." Polonius's daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet,
but Laertes warns her against seeking the prince's attention, and
Polonius orders her to reject his advances. That night on the rampart,
the ghost appears to Hamlet, tells the prince that he was murdered by
Claudius (by pouring poison into his ear as he slept), and demands
that Hamlet avenge the murder. Hamlet agrees, and the ghost vanishes.
The prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he
plans to "put an antic disposition on", or act as though he has gone
mad. Hamlet forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret;
however, he remains uncertain of the ghost's reliability.
Act II
========
Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her
door the prior night half-undressed and behaving erratically. Polonius
blames love for Hamlet's madness and resolves to inform Claudius and
Gertrude. As he enters to do so, the king and queen are welcoming
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to
Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the two students
investigate the cause of Hamlet's mood and behaviour. Additional news
requires that Polonius wait to be heard: messengers from Norway inform
Claudius that the king of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for
attempting to re-fight his father's battles. The forces that
Fortinbras had conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be
sent against Poland, though they will pass through Danish territory to
get there.
Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlet's
behaviour, and then speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to
learn more. Hamlet feigns madness and subtly insults Polonius all the
while. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his
"friends" warmly but quickly discerns that they are there to spy on
him for Claudius. Hamlet admits that he is upset at his situation but
refuses to give the true reason, instead remarking "What a piece of
work is a man". Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet that they
have brought along a troupe of actors that they met while travelling
to Elsinore. Hamlet, after welcoming the actors and dismissing his
friends-turned-spies, asks them to deliver a soliloquy about the death
of King Priam, as witnessed by Queen Hecuba, at the climax of the
Trojan War. Hamlet then asks the actors to stage 'The Murder of
Gonzago', a play featuring a death in the style of his father's
murder. Hamlet intends to study Claudius's reaction to the play, and
thereby determine the truth of the ghost's story of Claudius's guilt.
Act III
=========
Polonius forces Ophelia to return Hamlet's love letters to the prince
while he and Claudius secretly watch in order to evaluate Hamlet's
reaction. Hamlet is walking alone in the hall as the King and Polonius
await Ophelia's entrance. Hamlet muses on thoughts of life versus
death. When Ophelia enters and tries to return Hamlet's things, Hamlet
accuses her of immodesty and cries "get thee to a nunnery", though it
is unclear whether this, too, is a show of madness or genuine
distress. His reaction convinces Claudius that Hamlet is not mad for
love. Shortly thereafter, the court assembles to watch the play Hamlet
has commissioned. After seeing the Player King murdered by his rival
pouring poison in his ear, Claudius abruptly rises and runs from the
room; for Hamlet, this is proof of his uncle's guilt.
Gertrude summons Hamlet to her chamber to demand an explanation.
Meanwhile, Claudius talks to himself about the impossibility of
repenting, since he still has possession of his ill-gotten goods: his
brother's crown and wife. He sinks to his knees. Hamlet, on his way to
visit his mother, sneaks up behind him but does not kill him,
reasoning that killing Claudius while he is praying will send him
straight to heaven while his father's ghost is stuck in purgatory. In
the queen's bedchamber, Hamlet and Gertrude fight bitterly. Polonius,
spying on the conversation from behind a tapestry, calls for help as
Gertrude, believing Hamlet wants to kill her, calls out for help
herself.
Hamlet, believing it is Claudius, stabs wildly, killing Polonius, but
he pulls aside the curtain and sees his mistake. In a rage, Hamlet
brutally insults his mother for her apparent ignorance of Claudius's
villainy, but the ghost enters and reprimands Hamlet for his inaction
and harsh words. Unable to see or hear the ghost herself, Gertrude
takes Hamlet's conversation with it as further evidence of madness.
After begging the queen to stop sleeping with Claudius, Hamlet leaves,
dragging Polonius's corpse away.
Act IV
========
Hamlet jokes with Claudius about where he has hidden Polonius's body,
and the king, fearing for his life, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
to accompany Hamlet to England with a sealed letter to the English
king requesting that Hamlet be executed immediately.
Unhinged by grief at Polonius's death, Ophelia wanders Elsinore.
Laertes arrives back from France, enraged by his father's death and
his sister's madness. Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is solely
responsible, but a letter soon arrives indicating that Hamlet has
returned to Denmark, foiling Claudius's plan. Claudius switches
tactics, proposing a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet to
settle their differences. Laertes will be given a poison-tipped foil,
and, if that fails, Claudius will offer Hamlet poisoned wine as a
congratulation. Gertrude interrupts to report that Ophelia has
drowned, though it is unclear whether it was suicide or an accident
caused by her madness.
Act V
=======
Horatio has received a letter from Hamlet, explaining that the prince
escaped by negotiating with pirates who attempted to attack his
England-bound ship, and the friends reunite offstage. Two gravediggers
discuss Ophelia's apparent suicide while digging her grave. Hamlet
arrives with Horatio and banters with one of the gravediggers, who
unearths the skull of a jester from Hamlet's childhood, Yorick. Hamlet
picks up the skull, saying "Alas, poor Yorick" as he contemplates
mortality. Ophelia's funeral procession approaches, led by Laertes.
Hamlet and Horatio initially hide, but when Hamlet realizes that
Ophelia is the one being buried, he reveals himself, proclaiming his
love for her. Laertes and Hamlet fight by Ophelia's graveside, but the
brawl is broken up.
Back at Elsinore, Hamlet explains to Horatio that he had discovered
Claudius's letter among Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's belongings and
replaced it with a forged copy indicating that his former friends
should be killed instead. A foppish courtier, Osric, interrupts the
conversation to deliver the fencing challenge to Hamlet from Laertes.
Hamlet, despite Horatio's pleas, accepts it. Hamlet does well at
first, leading the match by two hits to none, and Gertrude raises a
toast to him using the poisoned glass of wine Claudius had set aside
for Hamlet. Claudius tries to stop her but is too late: she drinks,
and Laertes realizes the plot will be revealed. Laertes slashes Hamlet
with his poisoned blade. In the ensuing scuffle, they switch weapons,
and Hamlet wounds Laertes with his own poisoned sword. Gertrude
collapses and, claiming she has been poisoned, dies. In his dying
moments, Laertes reconciles with Hamlet and reveals Claudius's plan.
Hamlet rushes at Claudius and kills him. As the poison takes effect,
Hamlet, hearing that Fortinbras is marching through the area, names
the Norwegian prince as his successor. Horatio, distraught at the
thought of being the last survivor and living whilst Hamlet does not,
says he will commit suicide by drinking the dregs of Gertrude's
poisoned wine, but Hamlet begs him to live on and tell his story.
Hamlet dies in Horatio's arms, proclaiming "the rest is silence".
Fortinbras, who was ostensibly marching towards Poland with his army,
arrives at the palace, along with an English ambassador bringing news
of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths. Horatio promises to recount
the full story of what happened, and Fortinbras, seeing the entire
Danish royal family dead, takes the crown for himself and orders a
military funeral to honour Hamlet.
Sources
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'Hamlet'-like legends are so widely found (for example in Italy,
Spain, Scandinavia, Byzantium, and Arabia) that the core
"hero-as-fool" theme is possibly Indo-European in origin. Several
ancient written precursors to 'Hamlet' can be identified. The first is
the anonymous Scandinavian 'Saga of Hrolf Kraki'. In this, the
murdered king has two sons--Hroar and Helgi--who spend most of the
story in disguise, under false names, rather than feigning madness, in
a sequence of events that differs from Shakespeare's. The second is
the Roman legend of Brutus, recorded in two separate Latin works. Its
hero, Lucius ("shining, light"), changes his name and persona to
Brutus ("dull, stupid"), playing the role of a fool to avoid the fate
of his father and brothers, and eventually slaying his family's
killer, King Tarquinius. A 17th-century Nordic scholar, Torfaeus,
compared the Icelandic hero Amlóði (Amlodi) and the hero Prince
Ambales (from the 'Ambales Saga') to Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'.
Similarities include the prince's feigned madness, his accidental
killing of the king's counsellor in his mother's bedroom, and the
eventual slaying of his uncle.
Many of the earlier legendary elements are interwoven in the
13th-century "Life of Amleth" () by Saxo Grammaticus, part of 'Gesta
Danorum'. Written in Latin, it reflects classical Roman concepts of
virtue and heroism, and was widely available in Shakespeare's day.
Significant parallels include the prince feigning madness, his
mother's hasty marriage to the usurper, the prince killing a hidden
spy, and the prince substituting the execution of two retainers for
his own. A reasonably faithful version of Saxo's story was translated
into French in 1570 by François de Belleforest, in his 'Histoires
tragiques'. Belleforest embellished Saxo's text substantially, almost
doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy.
According to one theory, Shakespeare's main source may be an earlier
play--now lost--known today as the 'Ur-Hamlet'. Possibly written by
Thomas Kyd or by Shakespeare, the 'Ur-Hamlet' would have existed by
1589, and would have incorporated a ghost. Shakespeare's company, the
Chamberlain's Men, may have purchased that play and performed a
version for some time, which Shakespeare reworked. However, no copy of
the 'Ur-Hamlet' has survived, and it is impossible to compare its
language and style with the known works of any of its putative
authors. In 1936 Andrew Cairncross suggested that, until more becomes
known, it may be assumed that Shakespeare wrote the 'Ur-Hamlet'. Eric
Sams lists reasons for supporting Shakespeare's authorship. Harold
Jenkins considers that there are no grounds for thinking that the
'Ur-Hamlet' is an early work by Shakespeare, which he then rewrote.
Professor Terri Bourus in 2016, one of three general editors of the
New Oxford Shakespeare, in her paper "Enter Shakespeare's Young
Hamlet, 1589" suggests that Shakespeare was "interested in
sixteenth-century French literature, from the very beginning of his
career" and therefore "did not need Thomas Kyd to pre-digest
Belleforest's histoire of Amleth and spoon-feed it to him". She
considers that the hypothesized 'Ur-Hamlet' is Shakespeare's Q1 text,
and that this derived directly from Belleforest's French version.
The precise combination of Shakespeare's use of the 'Ur-Hamlet',
Belleforest, Saxo, or Kyd's 'The Spanish Tragedy' as sources for
'Hamlet' is not known. However, elements of Belleforest's version
which are not in Saxo's story do appear in Shakespeare's play.
Most scholars reject the idea that 'Hamlet' is in any way connected
with Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet Shakespeare, who died in 1596 at
age eleven. Conventional wisdom holds that 'Hamlet' is strongly
connected to legend, and the name Hamnet was quite popular at the
time. However, Stephen Greenblatt has argued that the coincidence of
the names and Shakespeare's grief for the loss of his son may lie at
the heart of the tragedy. He notes that the name of Hamnet Sadler, the
Stratford neighbour after whom Hamnet was named, was often written as
Hamlet Sadler and that, in the loose orthography of the time, the
names were virtually interchangeable.
Scholars have often speculated that 'Hamlet's' Polonius might have
been inspired by William Cecil (Lord Burghley)--Lord High Treasurer
and chief counsellor to Queen Elizabeth I. E. K. Chambers suggested
Polonius's advice to Laertes may have echoed Burghley's to his son
Robert Cecil. John Dover Wilson thought it almost certain that the
figure of Polonius caricatured Burghley. A. L. Rowse speculated that
Polonius's tedious verbosity might have resembled Burghley's. Lilian
Winstanley thought the name Corambis (in the First Quarto) did suggest
Cecil and Burghley. Harold Jenkins considers the idea of Polonius as a
caricature of Burghley to be conjecture, perhaps based on the similar
role they each played at court, and perhaps also based on the
similarity between Burghley addressing his 'Ten Precepts' to his son,
and Polonius offering "precepts" to his son, Laertes. Jenkins suggests
that any personal satire may be found in the name "Polonius", which
might point to a Polish or Polonian connection. G. R. Hibbard
hypothesised that differences in names
(Corambis/Polonius:Montano/Raynoldo) between the First Quarto and
other editions might reflect a desire not to offend scholars at Oxford
University. (Robert Pullen, was the founder of Oxford University, and
John Rainolds, was the President of Corpus Christi College.)
Date
======================================================================
"Any dating of 'Hamlet' must be tentative", states the 'New Cambridge'
editor, Phillip Edwards. MacCary suggests 1599 or 1600; James Shapiro
offers late 1600 or early 1601; Wells and Taylor suggest that the play
was written in 1600 and revised later; the New Cambridge editor
settles on mid-1601; the New Swan Shakespeare Advanced Series editor
agrees with 1601; Thompson and Taylor, tentatively ("according to
whether one is the more persuaded by Jenkins or by Honigmann") suggest
a 'terminus ad quem' of either Spring 1601 or sometime in 1600.
The earliest date estimate relies on 'Hamlet's' frequent allusions to
Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar', itself dated to mid-1599. The latest
date estimate is based on an entry, of 26 July 1602, in the Register
of the Stationers' Company, indicating that 'Hamlet' was "latelie
Acted by the Lo: Chamberleyne his servantes".
In 1598, Francis Meres published his 'Palladis Tamia', a survey of
English literature from Chaucer to its present day, within which
twelve of Shakespeare's plays are named. 'Hamlet' is not among them,
suggesting that it had not yet been written. As 'Hamlet' was very
popular, Bernard Lott, the series editor of 'New Swan', believes it
"unlikely that he [Meres] would have overlooked ... so significant a
piece".
The phrase "little eyases" in the First Folio (F1) may allude to the
Children of the Chapel, whose popularity in London forced the Globe
company into provincial touring. This became known as the War of the
Theatres, and supports a 1601 dating. Katherine Duncan-Jones accepts a
1600-01 attribution for the date 'Hamlet' was written, but notes that
the Lord Chamberlain's Men, playing 'Hamlet' in the 3000-capacity
Globe, were unlikely to be put to any disadvantage by an audience of
"barely one hundred" for the Children of the chapel's equivalent play,
'Antonio's Revenge'; she believes that Shakespeare, confident in the
superiority of his own work, was making a playful and charitable
allusion to his friend John Marston's very similar piece.
A contemporary of Shakespeare's, Gabriel Harvey, wrote a marginal note
in his copy of the 1598 edition of Chaucer's works, which some
scholars use as dating evidence. Harvey's note says that "the wiser
sort" enjoy 'Hamlet', and implies that the Earl of Essex--executed in
February 1601 for rebellion--was still alive. Other scholars consider
this inconclusive. Edwards, for example, concludes that the "sense of
time is so confused in Harvey's note that it is really of little use
in trying to date ". This is because the same note also refers to
Spenser and Watson as if they were still alive ("our flourishing
metricians"), but also mentions "Owen's new epigrams", published in
1607.
Texts
======================================================================
Three early editions of the text, each different, have survived,
making attempts to establish a single "authentic" text problematic.
* First Quarto (Q1): In 1603 the booksellers Nicholas Ling and John
Trundell published, and Valentine Simmes printed, the so-called "bad"
first quarto, under the name 'The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince
of Denmarke'. Q1 contains just over half of the text of the later
second quarto.
* Second Quarto (Q2): In 1604 Nicholas Ling published, and James
Roberts printed, the second quarto, under the same name as the first.
Some copies are dated 1605, which may indicate a second impression;
consequently, Q2 is often dated "1604/5". Q2 is the longest early
edition, although it omits about 77 lines found in F1 (most likely to
avoid offending James I's queen, Anne of Denmark).
* First Folio (F1): In 1623 Edward Blount and William and Isaac
Jaggard published 'The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke' in the
First Folio, the first edition of Shakespeare's 'Complete Works'.
This list does not include three additional early texts, John
Smethwick's Q3, Q4, and Q5 (1611-37), which are regarded as reprints
of Q2 with some alterations.
Early editors of Shakespeare's works, beginning with Nicholas Rowe
(1709) and Lewis Theobald (1733), combined material from the two
earliest sources of 'Hamlet' available at the time, Q2 and F1. Each
text contains material that the other lacks, with many minor
differences in wording: scarcely 200 lines are identical in the two.
Editors have combined them in an effort to create one "inclusive" text
that reflects an imagined "ideal" of Shakespeare's original.
Theobald's version became standard for a long time, and his "full
text" approach continues to influence editorial practice to the
present day. Some contemporary scholarship, however, discounts this
approach, instead considering "an authentic 'Hamlet' an unrealisable
ideal. ... there are 'texts' of this play but no 'text'". The 2006
publication by Arden Shakespeare of different 'Hamlet' texts in
different volumes is perhaps evidence of this shifting focus and
emphasis. Other editors have continued to argue the need for
well-edited editions taking material from all versions of the play.
Colin Burrow has argued that most of us should read a text that is
made up by conflating all three versions ... it's about as likely that
Shakespeare wrote: "To be or not to be, ay, there's the point" [in
Q1], as that he wrote the works of Francis Bacon. I suspect most
people just won't want to read a three-text play ... [multi-text
editions are] a version of the play that is out of touch with the
needs of a wider public.
Traditionally, editors of Shakespeare's plays have divided them into
five acts. None of the early texts of 'Hamlet', however, were arranged
this way, and the play's division into acts and scenes derives from a
1676 quarto. Modern editors generally follow this traditional division
but consider it unsatisfactory; for example, after Hamlet drags
Polonius's body out of Gertrude's bedchamber, there is an act-break
after which the action appears to continue uninterrupted.
Q1 was discovered in 1823. Only two copies are extant. According to
Jenkins, "The unauthorized nature of this quarto is matched by the
corruption of its text." Yet Q1 has value: it contains stage
directions (such as Ophelia entering with a lute and her hair down)
that reveal actual stage practices in a way that Q2 and F1 do not; it
contains an entire scene (usually labelled 4.6) that does not appear
in either Q2 or F1; and it is useful for comparison with the later
editions. The major deficiency of Q1 is in the language: particularly
noticeable in the opening lines of the famous "To be, or not to be"
soliloquy: "To be, or not to be, aye there's the point. / To die, to
sleep, is that all? Aye all: / No, to sleep, to dream, aye marry there
it goes." However, the scene order is more coherent, without the
problems of Q2 and F1 of Hamlet seeming to resolve something in one
scene and enter the next drowning in indecision. New Cambridge editor
Kathleen Irace has noted that "Q1's more linear plot design is
certainly easier [...] to follow [...] but the simplicity of the Q1
plot arrangement eliminates the alternating plot elements that
correspond to Hamlet's shifts in mood."
Q1 is considerably shorter than Q2 or F1 and may be a memorial
reconstruction of the play as Shakespeare's company performed it, by
an actor who played a minor role (most likely Marcellus). Scholars
disagree whether the reconstruction was pirated or authorised. It is
suggested by Irace that Q1 is an abridged version intended especially
for travelling productions, thus the question of length may be
considered as separate from issues of poor textual quality. Editing Q1
thus poses problems in whether or not to "correct" differences from Q2
and F. Irace, in her introduction to Q1, wrote that "I have avoided as
many other alterations as possible, because the differences...are
especially intriguing...I have recorded a selection of Q2/F readings
in the collation." The idea that Q1 is not riddled with error but is
instead eminently fit for the stage has led to at least 28 different
Q1 productions since 1881. Other productions have used the Q2 and
Folio texts, but used Q1's running order, in particular moving the 'to
be or not to be' soliloquy earlier. Developing this, some editors such
as Jonathan Bate have argued that Q2 may represent "a 'reading' text
as opposed to a 'performance' one" of 'Hamlet': an edition containing
all of Shakespeare's material for the play for the pleasure of
readers, so not representing the play as it would have been staged.
* , in multiple editions
* [
http://shakespearestudyguide.com/Hamlet%20Text.html 'Hamlet']
Complete text on one page with definitions of difficult words and
explanations of difficult passages.
*
*
*
* [
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Ham/ 'Hamlet' at
the Internet Shakespeare Editions]Transcripts and facsimiles of Q1, Q2
and F1.
* [
http://www.quartos.org Shakespeare Quartos Archive]Transcriptions
and facsimiles of thirty-two copies of the five pre-1642 quarto
editions.
*
[
http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/playmenu.php?WorkID=hamlet
'Hamlet' at Open Source Shakespeare]A complete text of 'Hamlet' based
on Q2.
* '[
https://www.owleyes.org/text/hamlet Hamlet]'Annotated text aligned
to Common Core standards.
* [
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56454 'Hamlet']Etext in Spanish
available in many formats at Gutenberg.org.
Critical history
==================
From the early 17th century, the play was famous for its ghost and
vivid dramatisation of melancholy and insanity, leading to a
procession of mad courtiers and ladies in Jacobean and Caroline drama.
Though it remained popular with mass audiences, late 17th-century
Restoration critics saw 'Hamlet' as primitive and disapproved of its
lack of unity and decorum. This view changed drastically in the 18th
century, when critics regarded Hamlet as a hero--a pure, brilliant
young man thrust into unfortunate circumstances.
By the mid-18th century, however, the advent of Gothic literature
brought psychological and mystical readings, returning madness and the
ghost to the forefront. Not until the late 18th century did critics
and performers begin to view Hamlet as confusing and inconsistent.
Before then, he was either mad, or not; either a hero, or not; with no
in-betweens. These developments represented a fundamental change in
literary criticism, which came to focus more on character and less on
plot. In the 18th century, one negative French review of Hamlet would
be widely discussed for centuries, in particular in publications
throughout the 19th and 20th century. In 1768, Voltaire wrote a
negative review of 'Hamlet', stating that "it is vulgar and barbarous
drama, which would not be tolerated by the vilest populace of France
or Italy... one would imagine this piece to be a work of a drunken
savage", while acknowledging that it contains "some sublime strokes
worthy of the greatest genius".
By the 19th century, Romantic critics valued 'Hamlet' for its
internal, individual conflict reflecting the strong contemporary
emphasis on internal struggles and inner character in general. Then
too, critics started to focus on Hamlet's delay as a character trait,
rather than a plot device. This focus on character and internal
struggle continued into the 20th century, when criticism branched in
several directions, discussed in context and interpretation below.
Dramatic structure
====================
Modern editors have divided the play into five acts, and each act into
scenes. The First Folio marks the first two acts only. The quartos do
not have such divisions. The division into five acts follows Seneca,
who in his plays, regularized the way ancient Greek tragedies contain
five episodes, which are separated by four choral odes. In 'Hamlet'
the development of the plot or the action are determined by the
unfolding of Hamlet's character. The soliloquies do not interrupt the
plot, instead they are highlights of each block of action. The plot is
the developing revelation of Hamlet's view of what is "rotten in the
state of Denmark." The action of the play is driven forward in
dialogue; but in the soliloquies time and action stop, the meaning of
action is questioned, fog of illusion is broached, and truths are
exposed.
The contrast between appearance and reality is a significant theme.
Hamlet is presented with an image, and then interprets its deeper or
darker meaning. Examples begin with Hamlet questioning the reality of
the ghost. It continues with Hamlet's taking on an "antic disposition"
in order to appear mad, though he is not. The contrast (appearance and
reality) is also expressed in several "spying scenes": Act two begins
with Polonius sending Reynaldo to spy on his son, Laertes. Claudius
and Polonius spy on Ophelia as she meets with Hamlet. In act two,
Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet.
Similarly, the play-within-a-play is used by Hamlet to reveal his
step-father's hidden nature.
There is no subplot, but the play presents the affairs of the courtier
Polonius, his daughter, Ophelia, and his son, Laertes--who variously
deal with madness, love and the death of a father in ways that
contrast with Hamlet's. The graveyard scene eases tension prior to the
catastrophe, and, as Hamlet holds the skull, it is shown that Hamlet
no longer fears damnation in the afterlife, and accepts that there is
a "divinity that shapes our ends".
Hamlet's enquiring mind has been open to all kinds of ideas, but in
act five he has decided on a plan, and in a dialogue with Horatio he
seems to answer his two earlier soliloquies on suicide: "We defy
augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be
now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be
not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man, of
aught he leaves, knows aught, what is't to leave betimes."
Length
========
The First Quarto (1603) text of 'Hamlet' contains 15,983 words, the
Second Quarto (1604) contains 28,628 words, and the First Folio (1623)
contains 27,602 words. Counting the number of lines varies between
editions, partly because prose sections in the play may be formatted
with varied lengths. Editions of 'Hamlet' that are created by
conflating the texts of the Second Quarto and the Folio are said to
have approximately 3,900 lines; the number of lines varies between
those editions based on formatting the prose sections, counting
methods, and how the editors have joined the texts together. 'Hamlet'
is by far the longest play that Shakespeare wrote, and one of the
longest plays in the Western canon. It might require more than four
hours to stage; a typical Elizabethan play would need two to three
hours. It is speculated that because of the considerable length of Q2
and F1, there was an expectation that those texts would be abridged
for performance, or that Q2 and F1 may have been aimed at a reading
audience.
That Q1 is so much shorter than Q2 has spurred speculation that Q1 is
an early draft, or perhaps an adaptation, a bootleg copy, or a stage
adaptation. On the title page of Q2, its text is described as "newly
imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was." That is
probably a comparison to Q1.
Language
==========
Much of 'Hamlet's' language is courtly: elaborate, witty discourse, as
recommended by Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 etiquette guide, 'The
Courtier'. This work specifically advises royal retainers to amuse
their masters with inventive language. Osric and Polonius, especially,
seem to respect this injunction. Claudius's speech is rich with
rhetorical figures--as is Hamlet's and, at times, Ophelia's--while the
language of Horatio, the guards, and the gravediggers is simpler.
Claudius's high status is reinforced by using the royal first person
plural ("we" or "us"), and anaphora mixed with metaphor to resonate
with Greek political speeches.
Of all the characters, Hamlet has the greatest rhetorical skill. He
uses highly developed metaphors, stichomythia, and in nine memorable
words deploys both anaphora and asyndeton: "to die: to sleep-- / To
sleep, perchance to dream". In contrast, when occasion demands, he is
precise and straightforward, as when he explains his inward emotion to
his mother: "But I have that within which passes show, / These but the
trappings and the suits of woe". At times, he relies heavily on puns
to express his true thoughts while simultaneously concealing them.
Pauline Kiernan argues that Shakespeare changed English drama forever
in 'Hamlet' because he "showed how a character's language can often be
saying several things at once, and contradictory meanings at that, to
reflect fragmented thoughts and disturbed feelings". She gives the
example of Hamlet's advice to Ophelia, "get thee to a nunnery", which,
she claims, is simultaneously a reference to a place of chastity and a
slang term for a brothel, reflecting Hamlet's confused feelings about
female sexuality. However Harold Jenkins does not agree, having
studied the few examples that are used to support that idea, and finds
that there is no support for the assumption that "nunnery" was used
that way in slang, or that Hamlet intended such a meaning. The context
of the scene suggests that a nunnery would not be a brothel, but
instead a place of renunciation and a "sanctuary from marriage and
from the world's contamination". Thompson and Taylor consider the
brothel idea incorrect considering that "Hamlet is trying to deter
Ophelia from 'breeding'".
Hamlet's first words in the play are a pun; when Claudius addresses
him as "my cousin Hamlet, and my son", Hamlet says as an aside: "A
little more than kin, and less than kind."
An unusual rhetorical device, hendiadys, appears in several places in
the play. Examples are found in Ophelia's speech at the end of the
nunnery scene: "Thexpectancy and rose' of the fair state" and "And I,
of ladies most 'deject and wretched'". Many scholars have found it odd
that Shakespeare would, seemingly arbitrarily, use this rhetorical
form throughout the play. One explanation may be that 'Hamlet' was
written later in Shakespeare's life, when he was adept at matching
rhetorical devices to characters and the plot. Linguist George T.
Wright suggests that hendiadys had been used deliberately to heighten
the play's sense of duality and dislocation.
Hamlet's soliloquies have captured the attention of scholars. Hamlet
interrupts himself, vocalising either disgust or agreement with
himself and embellishing his own words. He has difficulty expressing
himself directly and instead blunts the thrust of his thought with
wordplay. It is not until late in the play, after his experience with
the pirates, that Hamlet is able to articulate his feelings freely.
Religious
===========
Written at a time of religious upheaval and in the wake of the English
Reformation, the play is alternately Catholic (or piously medieval)
and Protestant (or consciously modern). The ghost describes himself as
being in purgatory and as dying without last rites. This and Ophelia's
burial ceremony, which is characteristically Catholic, make up most of
the play's Catholic connections. Some scholars have observed that
revenge tragedies come from Catholic countries such as Italy and
Spain, where the revenge tragedies present contradictions of motives,
since according to Catholic doctrine the duty to God and family
precedes civil justice.
Much of the play's Protestant tones derive from its setting in
Denmark--both then and now a predominantly Protestant country, though
it is unclear whether the fictional Denmark of the play is intended to
portray this implicit fact. Dialogue refers explicitly to the German
city of Wittenberg where Hamlet, Horatio, and Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern attend university, implying where the Protestant reformer
Martin Luther nailed the 'Ninety-five Theses' to the church door in
1517.
Philosophical
===============
Hamlet is often perceived as a philosophical character, expounding
ideas that are now described as relativist, existentialist, and
sceptical. For example, he expresses a subjectivistic idea when he
says to Rosencrantz: "there is nothing either good or bad, but
thinking makes it so". The idea that nothing is real except in the
mind of the individual finds its roots in the Greek Sophists, who
argued that since nothing can be perceived except through the
senses--and since all individuals sense, and therefore perceive things
differently--there is no absolute truth, but rather only relative
truth. The clearest alleged instance of existentialism is in the "to
be, or not to be" speech, where Hamlet is thought by some to use
"being" to allude to life and action, and "not being" to death and
inaction.
'Hamlet' reflects the contemporary scepticism promoted by the French
Renaissance humanist Michel de Montaigne. Prior to Montaigne's time,
humanists such as Pico della Mirandola had argued that man was God's
greatest creation, made in God's image and able to choose his own
nature, but this view was subsequently challenged in Montaigne's
'Essais' of 1580. Hamlet's "What a piece of work is a man" seems to
echo many of Montaigne's ideas, and many scholars have discussed
whether Shakespeare drew directly from Montaigne or whether both men
were simply reacting similarly to the spirit of the times.
Sigmund Freud
===============
Sigmund Freud’s thoughts regarding 'Hamlet' were first published in
his book 'The Interpretation of Dreams' (1899), as a footnote to a
discussion of Sophocles’ tragedy, 'Oedipus Rex,' all of which is part
of his consideration of the causes of neurosis. Freud does not offer
over-all interpretations of the plays, but uses the two tragedies to
illustrate and corroborate his psychological theories, which are based
on his treatments of his patients and on his studies. Productions of
'Hamlet' have used Freud's ideas to support their own interpretations.
In 'The Interpretation of Dreams', Freud says that according to his
experience "parents play a leading part in the infantile psychology of
all persons who subsequently become psychoneurotics," and that
"falling in love with one parent and hating the other" is a common
impulse in early childhood, and is important source material of
"subsequent neurosis". He says that "in their amorous or hostile
attitude toward their parents" neurotics reveal something that occurs
with less intensity "in the minds of the majority of children". Freud
considered that Sophocles’ tragedy, 'Oedipus Rex', with its story that
involves crimes of parricide and incest, "has furnished us with
legendary matter which corroborates" these ideas, and that the
"profound and universal validity of the old legends" is understandable
only by recognizing the validity of these theories of "infantile
psychology".
Freud explores the reason "'Oedipus Rex' is capable of moving a modern
reader or playgoer no less powerfully than it moved the contemporary
Greeks". He suggests that "It may be that we were all destined to
direct our first sexual impulses toward our mothers, and our first
impulses of hatred and violence toward our fathers." Freud suggests
that we "recoil from the person for whom this primitive wish of our
childhood has been fulfilled with all the force of the repression
which these wishes have undergone in our minds since childhood."
These ideas, which became a cornerstone of Freud's psychological
theories, he named the "Oedipus complex", and, at one point, he
considered calling it the "Hamlet complex". Freud considered that
'Hamlet' "is rooted in the same soil as 'Oedipus Rex'." But the
difference in the "psychic life" of the two civilizations that
produced each play, and the progress made over time of "repression in
the emotional life of humanity" can be seen in the way the same
material is handled by the two playwrights: In 'Oedipus Rex' incest
and murder are brought into the light as might occur in a dream, but
in 'Hamlet' these impulses "remain repressed" and we learn of their
existence through Hamlet's inhibitions to act out the revenge, while
he is shown to be capable of acting decisively and boldly in other
contexts. Freud asserts, "The play is based on Hamlet’s hesitation in
accomplishing the task of revenge assigned to him; the text does not
give the cause or the motive of this." The conflict is "deeply
hidden".
Hamlet is able to perform any kind of action except taking revenge on
the man who murdered his father and has taken his father's place with
his mother--Claudius has led Hamlet to realize the repressed desires
of his own childhood. The loathing which was supposed to drive him to
revenge is replaced by "self-reproach, by conscientious scruples"
which tell him "he himself is no better than the murderer whom he is
required to punish". Freud suggests that Hamlet's sexual aversion
expressed in his "nunnery" conversation with Ophelia supports the idea
that Hamlet is "an hysterical subject".
Freud suggests that the character Hamlet goes through an experience
that has three characteristics, which he numbered: 1) "the hero is not
psychopathic, but becomes so" during the course of the play. 2) "the
repressed desire is one of those that are similarly repressed in all
of us." It is a repression that "belongs to an early stage of our
individual development". The audience identifies with the character of
Hamlet, because "we are victims of the same conflict." 3) It is the
nature of theatre that "the struggle of the repressed impulse to
become conscious" occurs in both the hero onstage and the spectator,
when they are in the grip of their emotions, "in the manner seen in
psychoanalytic treatment".
Freud points out that 'Hamlet' is an exception in that psychopathic
characters are usually ineffective in stage plays; they "become as
useless for the stage as they are for life itself", because they do
not inspire insight or empathy, unless the audience is familiar with
the character's inner conflict. Freud says, "It is thus the task of
the dramatist to transport us into the same illness."
John Barrymore's long-running 1922 performance in New York, directed
by Thomas Hopkins, "broke new ground in its Freudian approach to
character", in keeping with the post-World War I rebellion against
everything Victorian. He had a "blunter intention" than presenting the
genteel, sweet prince of 19th-century tradition, imbuing his character
with virility and lust.
Beginning in 1910, with the publication of "The Œdipus-Complex as an
Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive" Ernest Jones--a
psychoanalyst and Freud's biographer--developed Freud's ideas into a
series of essays that culminated in his book 'Hamlet and Oedipus'
(1949). Influenced by Jones's psychoanalytic approach, several
productions have portrayed the "closet scene", where Hamlet confronts
his mother in her private quarters, in a sexual light. In this
reading, Hamlet is disgusted by his mother's "incestuous" relationship
with Claudius while simultaneously fearful of killing him, as this
would clear Hamlet's path to his mother's bed. Ophelia's madness after
her father's death may also be read through the Freudian lens: as a
reaction to the death of her hoped-for lover, her father. Ophelia is
overwhelmed by having her unfulfilled love for him so abruptly
terminated and drifts into the oblivion of insanity. In 1937, Tyrone
Guthrie directed Laurence Olivier in a Jones-inspired 'Hamlet' at The
Old Vic. Olivier later used some of these same ideas in his 1948 film
version of the play.
In the 'Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages' volume on Hamlet,
editors Bloom and Foster express a conviction that the intentions of
Shakespeare in portraying the character of Hamlet in the play exceeded
the capacity of the Freudian Oedipus complex to completely encompass
the extent of characteristics depicted in Hamlet throughout the
tragedy: "For once, Freud regressed in attempting to fasten the
Oedipus Complex upon Hamlet: it will not stick, and merely showed that
Freud did better than T.S. Eliot, who preferred 'Coriolanus' to
'Hamlet', or so he said. Who can believe Eliot, when he exposes his
own Hamlet Complex by declaring the play to be an aesthetic failure?"
The book also notes James Joyce's interpretation, stating that he "did
far better in the Library Scene of 'Ulysses', where Stephen
marvellously credits Shakespeare, in this play, with universal
fatherhood while accurately implying that Hamlet is fatherless, thus
opening a pragmatic gap between Shakespeare and Hamlet."
Joshua Rothman has written in 'The New Yorker' that "we tell the story
wrong when we say that Freud used the idea of the Oedipus complex to
understand 'Hamlet'". Rothman suggests that "it was the other way
around: 'Hamlet' helped Freud understand, and perhaps even invent,
psychoanalysis". He concludes, "The Oedipus complex is a misnomer. It
should be called the 'Hamlet complex'."
Jacques Lacan
===============
In the 1950s, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan analyzed 'Hamlet'
to illustrate some of his concepts. His structuralist theories about
'Hamlet' were first presented in a series of seminars given in Paris
and later published in "Desire and the Interpretation of Desire in
'Hamlet'". Lacan postulated that the human psyche is determined by
structures of language and that the linguistic structures of 'Hamlet'
shed light on human desire. His point of departure is Freud's Oedipal
theories, and the central theme of mourning that runs through
'Hamlet'. In Lacan's analysis, Hamlet unconsciously assumes the role
of 'phallus'--the cause of his inaction--and is increasingly distanced
from reality "by mourning, fantasy, narcissism and psychosis", which
create holes (or lack) in the real, imaginary, and symbolic aspects of
his psyche. Lacan's theories influenced some subsequent literary
criticism of 'Hamlet' because of his alternative vision of the play
and his use of semantics to explore the play's psychological
landscape.
Feminist
==========
In the 20th century, feminist critics opened up new approaches to
Gertrude and Ophelia. New historicist and cultural materialist critics
examined the play in its historical context, attempting to piece
together its original cultural environment. They focused on the gender
system of early modern England, pointing to the common trinity of
'maid, wife, or widow', with 'whores' outside of that stereotype. In
this analysis, the essence of 'Hamlet' is the central character's
changed perception of his mother as a whore because of her failure to
remain faithful to Old Hamlet. In consequence, Hamlet loses his faith
in all women, treating Ophelia as if she too were a whore and
dishonest with Hamlet.
Carolyn Heilbrun's 1957 essay "The Character of Hamlet's Mother"
defends Gertrude, arguing that the text never hints that Gertrude knew
of Claudius poisoning King Hamlet. This analysis has been praised by
many feminist critics, combating what is, by Heilbrun's argument,
centuries' worth of misinterpretation. By this account, Gertrude's
worst crime is of pragmatically marrying her brother-in-law in order
to avoid a power vacuum. This is borne out by the fact that King
Hamlet's ghost tells Hamlet to leave Gertrude out of Hamlet's revenge,
to leave her to heaven, an arbitrary mercy to grant to a conspirator
to murder.
Ophelia has also been defended by feminist critics, most notably
Elaine Showalter. Ophelia is surrounded by powerful men: her father,
brother, and Hamlet. All three disappear: Laertes leaves, Hamlet
abandons her, and Polonius dies. Conventional theories had argued that
without these three powerful men making decisions for her, Ophelia is
driven into madness. Feminist theorists argue that she goes mad with
guilt because, when Hamlet kills her father, he has fulfilled her
sexual desire to have Hamlet kill her father so they can be together.
Showalter points out that Ophelia has become the symbol of the
distraught and hysterical woman in modern culture.
Influence
======================================================================
'Hamlet' is one of the most quoted works in the English language, and
is often included on lists of the world's greatest literature. As
such, it reverberates through the writing of later centuries. Academic
Laurie Osborne identifies the direct influence of 'Hamlet' in numerous
modern narratives, and divides them into four main categories:
fictional accounts of the play's composition, simplifications of the
story for young readers, stories expanding the role of one or more
characters, and narratives featuring performances of the play.
English poet John Milton was an early admirer of Shakespeare and took
evident inspiration from his work. As John Kerrigan discusses, Milton
originally considered writing his epic poem 'Paradise Lost' (1667) as
a tragedy. While Milton did not ultimately go that route, the poem
still shows distinct echoes of Shakespearean revenge tragedy, and of
'Hamlet' in particular. As scholar Christopher N. Warren argues,
'Paradise Lost's' Satan "undergoes a transformation in the poem from a
Hamlet-like avenger into a Claudius-like usurper," a plot device that
supports Milton's larger Republican internationalist project. The poem
also reworks theatrical language from 'Hamlet', especially around the
idea of "putting on" certain dispositions, as when Hamlet puts on "an
antic disposition," similarly to the Son in 'Paradise Lost' who "can
put on / [God's] terrors."
Henry Fielding's 'Tom Jones', published about 1749, describes a visit
to 'Hamlet' by Tom Jones and Mr Partridge, with similarities to the
"play within a play". In contrast, Goethe's Bildungsroman 'Wilhelm
Meister's Apprenticeship', written between 1776 and 1796, not only has
a production of 'Hamlet' at its core but also creates parallels
between the ghost and Wilhelm Meister's dead father. In the early
1850s, in 'Pierre', Herman Melville focuses on a Hamlet-like
character's long development as a writer. Ten years later, Dickens's
'Great Expectations' contains many 'Hamlet'-like plot elements: it is
driven by revenge-motivated actions, contains ghost-like characters
(Abel Magwitch and Miss Havisham), and focuses on the hero's guilt.
Academic Alexander Welsh notes that 'Great Expectations' is an
"autobiographical novel" and "anticipates psychoanalytic readings of
'Hamlet' itself". About the same time, George Eliot's 'The Mill on the
Floss' was published, introducing Maggie Tulliver "who is explicitly
compared with Hamlet" though "with a reputation for sanity".
In the 1920s, James Joyce managed "a more upbeat version" of
'Hamlet'--stripped of obsession and revenge--in 'Ulysses', though its
main parallels are with Homer's 'Odyssey'. In the 1990s, two novelists
were explicitly influenced by 'Hamlet'. In Angela Carter's 'Wise
Children', 'To be or not to be' is reworked as a song and dance
routine, and Iris Murdoch's 'The Black Prince' has Oedipal themes and
murder intertwined with a love affair between a 'Hamlet'-obsessed
writer, Bradley Pearson, and the daughter of his rival. In the late
20th century, David Foster Wallace's novel 'Infinite Jest' draws
heavily from 'Hamlet' and takes its title from the play's text.
There is the story of the woman who read 'Hamlet' for the first time
and said, "I don't see why people admire that play so. It is nothing
but a bunch of quotations strung together."
-- Isaac Asimov, 'Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare', p. vii, Avenal
Books, 1970
Shakespeare's day to the Interregnum
======================================
Shakespeare almost certainly wrote the role of Hamlet for Richard
Burbage. He was the chief tragedian of the Lord Chamberlain's Men,
with a capacious memory for lines and a wide emotional range. Judging
by the number of reprints, 'Hamlet' appears to have been Shakespeare's
fourth most popular play during his lifetime--only 'Henry IV Part 1',
'Richard III' and 'Pericles' eclipsed it. Shakespeare provides no
clear indication of when his play is set; however, as Elizabethan
actors performed at the Globe in contemporary dress on minimal sets,
this would not have affected the staging.
Firm evidence for specific early performances of the play is scant. It
is sometimes argued that the crew of the ship 'Red Dragon', anchored
off Sierra Leone, performed 'Hamlet' in September 1607; however, this
claim is based on a 19th-century insert of a 'lost' passage into a
period document, and is today widely regarded as a hoax, likely to
have been perpetrated by John Payne Collier. More credible is that the
play toured in Germany within five years of Shakespeare's death, and
that it was performed before James I in 1619 and Charles I in 1637.
Oxford editor George Hibbard argues that, since the contemporary
literature contains many allusions and references to 'Hamlet' (only
Falstaff is mentioned more, from Shakespeare), the play was surely
performed with a frequency that the historical record misses.
All theatres were closed down by the Puritan government during the
Interregnum. Even during this time, however, playlets known as
'drolls' were often performed illegally, including one called 'The
Grave-Makers' based on act 5, scene 1 of 'Hamlet'.
Restoration and 18th century
==============================
The play was revived early in the Restoration. When the existing stock
of pre-civil war plays was divided between the two newly created
patent theatre companies, 'Hamlet' was the only Shakespearean
favourite that Sir William Davenant's Duke's Company secured. It
became the first of Shakespeare's plays to be presented with movable
flats painted with generic scenery behind the proscenium arch of
Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. This new stage convention highlighted
the frequency with which Shakespeare shifts dramatic location,
encouraging the recurrent criticism of his failure to maintain unity
of place. In the title role, Davenant cast Thomas Betterton, who
continued to play the Dane until he was 74. David Garrick at Drury
Lane produced a version that adapted Shakespeare heavily; he declared:
"I had sworn I would not leave the stage till I had rescued that noble
play from all the rubbish of the fifth act. I have brought it forth
without the grave-digger's trick, Osrick, & the fencing match".
The first actor known to have played Hamlet in North America is Lewis
Hallam Jr., in the American Company's production in Philadelphia in
1759.
John Philip Kemble made his Drury Lane debut as Hamlet in 1783. His
performance was said to be 20 minutes longer than anyone else's, and
his lengthy pauses provoked the suggestion by Richard Brinsley
Sheridan that "music should be played between the words". Sarah
Siddons was the first actress known to play Hamlet; many women have
since played him as a breeches role, to great acclaim. In 1748,
Alexander Sumarokov wrote a Russian adaptation that focused on Prince
Hamlet as the embodiment of an opposition to Claudius's tyranny--a
treatment that would recur in Eastern European versions into the 20th
century. In the years following America's independence, Thomas
Abthorpe Cooper, the young nation's leading tragedian, performed
'Hamlet' among other plays at the Chestnut Street Theatre in
Philadelphia, and at the Park Theatre in New York. Although chided for
"acknowledging acquaintances in the audience" and "inadequate
memorisation of his lines", he became a national celebrity.
19th century
==============
From around 1810 to 1840, the best-known Shakespearean performances in
the United States were tours by leading London actors--including
George Frederick Cooke, Junius Brutus Booth, Edmund Kean, William
Charles Macready, and Charles Kemble. Of these, Booth remained to make
his career in the States, fathering the nation's most notorious actor,
John Wilkes Booth (who later assassinated Abraham Lincoln), and its
most famous Hamlet, Edwin Booth. Edwin Booth's 'Hamlet' at the Fifth
Avenue Theatre in 1875 was described as "... the dark, sad, dreamy,
mysterious hero of a poem. [... acted] in an ideal manner, as far
removed as possible from the plane of actual life". Booth played
Hamlet for 100 nights in the 1864/5 season at the Winter Garden
Theatre, inaugurating the era of long-run Shakespeare in America.
In the United Kingdom, the actor-managers of the Victorian era
(including Kean, Samuel Phelps, Macready, and Henry Irving) staged
Shakespeare in a grand manner, with elaborate scenery and costumes.
The tendency of actor-managers to emphasise the importance of their
own central character did not always meet with the critics' approval.
George Bernard Shaw's praise for Johnston Forbes-Robertson's
performance contains a sideswipe at Irving: "The story of the play was
perfectly intelligible, and quite took the attention of the audience
off the principal actor at moments. What is the Lyceum coming to?"
In London, Edmund Kean was the first Hamlet to abandon the regal
finery usually associated with the role in favour of a plain costume,
and he is said to have surprised his audience by playing Hamlet as
serious and introspective. In stark contrast to earlier opulence,
William Poel's 1881 production of the Q1 text was an early attempt at
reconstructing the Elizabethan theatre's austerity; his only backdrop
was a set of red curtains. Sarah Bernhardt played the prince in her
popular 1899 London production. In contrast to the "effeminate" view
of the central character that usually accompanied a female casting,
she described her character as "manly and resolute, but nonetheless
thoughtful ... [he] thinks before he acts, a trait indicative of great
strength and great spiritual power".
In France, Charles Kemble initiated an enthusiasm for Shakespeare; and
leading members of the Romantic movement such as Victor Hugo and
Alexandre Dumas saw his 1827 Paris performance of 'Hamlet',
particularly admiring the madness of Harriet Smithson's Ophelia. In
Germany, 'Hamlet' had become so assimilated by the mid-19th century
that Ferdinand Freiligrath declared that "Germany is Hamlet". From the
1850s, the Parsi theatre tradition in India transformed 'Hamlet' into
folk performances, with dozens of songs added.
20th century
==============
Apart from some western troupes' 19th-century visits, the first
professional performance of Hamlet in Japan was Otojirō Kawakami's
1903 'Shinpa' ("new school theatre") adaptation. Tsubouchi Shōyō
translated 'Hamlet' and produced a performance in 1911 that blended
'Shingeki' ("new drama") and 'Kabuki' styles. This hybrid-genre
reached its peak in Tsuneari Fukuda's 1955 'Hamlet'. In 1998, Yukio
Ninagawa produced an acclaimed version of 'Hamlet' in the style of Nō
theatre, which he took to London.
Konstantin Stanislavski and Edward Gordon Craig--two of the 20th
century's most influential theatre practitioners--collaborated on the
Moscow Art Theatre's seminal production of 1911-12. While Craig
favoured stylised abstraction, Stanislavski, armed with his 'system,'
explored psychological motivation. Craig conceived of the play as a
symbolist monodrama, offering a dream-like vision as seen through
Hamlet's eyes alone. This was most evident in the staging of the first
court scene. The most famous aspect of the production is Craig's use
of large, abstract screens that altered the size and shape of the
acting area for each scene, representing the character's state of mind
spatially or visualising a dramaturgical progression. The production
attracted enthusiastic and unprecedented worldwide attention for the
theatre and placed it "on the cultural map for Western Europe".
The first modern dress stagings of 'Hamlet' happened in 1925 in London
and then New York. Barry Jackson's Birmingham Repertory Theatre
opened their production, directed by H.K. Ayliff at the Kingsway
Theatre on August 25, 1925. Ivor Brown reported, "Many of the first
night audience came to scoff and remained to hold its breath, to
marvel and enjoy. . . .Shakespeare's victory over time and tailoring
was swift and sweeping." Horace Brisbin Liveright's modern dress
production opened at the Booth Theater in New York on November 9,
1925, the same night that the London production moved to Birmingham.
It was known "more dryly, and perhaps with a touch of something more
sinister, as 'the plain-clothes 'Hamlet''" and did not reach the same
level of success.
'Hamlet' is often played with contemporary political overtones.
Leopold Jessner's 1926 production at the Berlin Staatstheater
portrayed Claudius's court as a parody of the corrupt and fawning
court of Kaiser Wilhelm. In Poland, the number of productions of
'Hamlet' has tended to increase at times of political unrest, since
its political themes (suspected crimes, coups, surveillance) can be
used to comment on a contemporary situation. Similarly, Czech
directors have used the play at times of occupation: a 1941 Vinohrady
Theatre production "emphasised, with due caution, the helpless
situation of an intellectual attempting to endure in a ruthless
environment". In China, performances of Hamlet often have political
significance: Gu Wuwei's 1916 'The Usurper of State Power', an amalgam
of 'Hamlet' and 'Macbeth', was an attack on Yuan Shikai's attempt to
overthrow the republic. In 1942, Jiao Juyin directed the play in a
Confucian temple in Sichuan Province, to which the government had
retreated from the advancing Japanese. In the immediate aftermath of
the collapse of the protests at Tiananmen Square, Lin Zhaohua staged a
1990 'Hamlet' in which the prince was an ordinary individual tortured
by a loss of meaning. In this production, the actors playing Hamlet,
Claudius and Polonius exchanged roles at crucial moments in the
performance, including the moment of Claudius's death, at which point
the actor mainly associated with Hamlet fell to the ground.
Notable stagings in London and New York include Barrymore's 1925
production at the Haymarket; it influenced subsequent performances by
John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier. Gielgud played the central role
many times: his 1936 New York production ran for 132 performances,
leading to the accolade that he was "the finest interpreter of the
role since Barrymore". Although "posterity has treated Maurice Evans
less kindly", throughout the 1930s and 1940s he was regarded by many
as the leading interpreter of Shakespeare in the United States and in
the 1938/39 season he presented Broadway's first uncut 'Hamlet',
running four and a half hours. Evans later performed a highly
truncated version of the play that he played for South Pacific war
zones during World War II which made the prince a more decisive
character. The staging, known as the "G.I. Hamlet", was produced on
Broadway for 131 performances in 1945/46. Olivier's 1937 performance
at The Old Vic was popular with audiences but not with critics, with
James Agate writing in a famous review in 'The Sunday Times,' "Mr.
Olivier does not speak poetry badly. He does not speak it at all." In
1937 Tyrone Guthrie directed the play at Elsinore, Denmark, with
Laurence Olivier as Hamlet and Vivien Leigh as Ophelia.
In 1963, Olivier directed Peter O'Toole as Hamlet in the inaugural
performance of the newly formed National Theatre; critics found
resonance between O'Toole's Hamlet and John Osborne's hero, Jimmy
Porter, from 'Look Back in Anger'.
Richard Burton received his third Tony Award nomination when he played
his second Hamlet, his first under John Gielgud's direction, in 1964
in a production that holds the record for the longest run of the play
in Broadway history (137 performances).
In 1968, Joseph Papp staged at The Public Theater what became known as
'"Naked" Hamlet' because the text was stripped down. It starred Martin
Sheen as Hamlet, and Sheen delivered the monologues either in Spanish
or with a Spanish accent, as Hamlet's alter-ego, a Puerto Rican
janitor named Ramon.
Other New York portrayals of 'Hamlet' of note include that of Ralph
Fiennes's in 1995 (for which he won the Tony Award for Best
Actor)--which ran, from first preview to closing night, a total of one
hundred performances. About the Fiennes 'Hamlet' Vincent Canby wrote
in 'The New York Times' that it was "... not one for literary sleuths
and Shakespeare scholars. It respects the play, but it doesn't provide
any new material for arcane debates on what it all means. Instead it's
an intelligent, beautifully read ..." Stacy Keach played the role with
an all-star cast at Joseph Papp's Delacorte Theater in the early
1970s, with Colleen Dewhurst's Gertrude, James Earl Jones's King,
Barnard Hughes's Polonius, Sam Waterston's Laertes and Raul Julia's
Osric. Sam Waterston later played the role himself at the Delacorte
for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and the show transferred to the
Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1975 (Stephen Lang played Bernardo and
other roles). Stephen Lang's 'Hamlet' for the Roundabout Theatre
Company in 1992 received mixed reviews and ran for sixty-one
performances. David Warner played the role with the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre in 1965. William Hurt (at Circle Repertory Company
off-Broadway, memorably performing "To be, or not to be" while lying
on the floor), Jon Voight at Rutgers, and Christopher Walken
(fiercely) at Stratford, Connecticut, have all played the role, as has
Diane Venora at The Public Theatre. The Internet Broadway Database
lists sixty-six productions of 'Hamlet'.
Ian Charleson performed Hamlet from 9 October to 13 November 1989, in
Richard Eyre's production at the Olivier Theatre, replacing Daniel
Day-Lewis, who had abandoned the production. Seriously ill from AIDS
at the time, Charleson died eight weeks after his last performance.
Fellow actor and friend, Sir Ian McKellen, said that Charleson played
Hamlet so well it was as if he had rehearsed the role all his life;
McKellen called it "the perfect Hamlet". The performance garnered
other major accolades as well, some critics echoing McKellen in
calling it the definitive Hamlet performance.
Keanu Reeves performed Hamlet from 12 January to 4 February 1995 at
the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg, Manitoba). The production
garnered positive reviews from worldwide media outlets.
21st century
==============
'Hamlet' continues to be staged regularly. Actors performing the lead
role have included: Simon Russell Beale, Ben Whishaw, David Tennant,
Tom Hiddleston, Angela Winkler, Samuel West, Christopher Eccleston,
Maxine Peake, Rory Kinnear, Oscar Isaac, Michael Sheen, Christian
Camargo, Paapa Essiedu and Michael Urie.
In May 2009, 'Hamlet' opened with Jude Law in the title role at the
Donmar Warehouse West End season at Wyndham's Theatre. The production
officially opened on 3 June and ran through 22 August 2009. A further
production with Jude Law ran at Elsinore Castle in Denmark from 25 to
30 August 2009, and then moved to Broadway, and ran for 12 weeks at
the Broadhurst Theatre in New York.
In October 2011, a production starring Michael Sheen opened at the
Young Vic, in which the play was set inside a psychiatric hospital.
In 2013, American actor Paul Giamatti played the title role of
'Hamlet' in modern dress, at the Yale Repertory Theatre, at Yale
University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Globe Theatre of London initiated a project in 2014 to perform
'Hamlet' in every country in the world in the space of two years.
Titled 'Globe to Globe Hamlet', it began its tour on 23 April 2014,
the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, and performed in 197
countries.
Benedict Cumberbatch played the role for a 12-week run in a production
at the Barbican Theatre, opening on 25 August 2015. It was called the
"most in-demand theatre production of all time" and sold out in seven
hours after tickets went on sale 11 August 2014, more than a year
before the play opened.
A 2017 Almeida Theatre production, directed by Robert Icke and
starring Andrew Scott, was transferred that same year to the West
End's Harold Pinter Theatre.
Tom Hiddleston played the role for a three-week run at Vanbrugh
Theatre that opened on 1 September 2017 and was directed by Kenneth
Branagh.
In 2018, The Globe Theatre's newly instated artistic director Michelle
Terry played the role in a production notable for its gender-blind
casting.
A production by Bristol Old Vic starring Billy Howle in title role,
Niamh Cusack as Gertrude, Mirren Mack as Ophelia opened on 13 October
2022.
Film and TV performances
==========================
An early film version of 'Hamlet' is Sarah Bernhardt's five-minute
film of the fencing scene, which was produced in 1900. The film was an
early attempt at combining sound and film; music and words were
recorded on phonograph records, to be played along with the film.
Silent versions were released in 1907, 1908, 1910, 1913, 1917, and
1920. In the 1921 film 'Hamlet', Danish actress Asta Nielsen played
the role of Hamlet as a woman who spends her life disguised as a man.
Laurence Olivier's 1948 moody black-and-white 'Hamlet' won Best
Picture and Best Actor Academy Awards and is , the only Shakespeare
film to have done so. His interpretation stressed the Oedipal
overtones of the play and cast 28-year-old Eileen Herlie as Hamlet's
mother opposite himself at 41 as Hamlet.
In 1953, actor Jack Manning performed the play in 15-minute segments
over two weeks in the short-lived late night DuMont series 'Monodrama
Theater'. 'New York Times' TV critic Jack Gould praised Manning's
performance as Hamlet.
The 1964 Soviet film 'Hamlet' () is based on a translation by Boris
Pasternak and directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with a score by Dmitri
Shostakovich. Innokenty Smoktunovsky was cast in the role of Hamlet.
John Gielgud directed Richard Burton in a Broadway production at the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1964-65, the longest-running 'Hamlet' in the
U.S. to date. A live film of the production was produced using
"Electronovision", a method of recording a live performance with
multiple video cameras and converting the image to film. Eileen Herlie
repeated her role from Olivier's film version as the Queen, and the
voice of Gielgud was heard as the ghost. The Gielgud/Burton production
was also recorded complete and released on LP by Columbia Masterworks.
The first 'Hamlet' in color was a 1969 film directed by Tony
Richardson with Nicol Williamson as Hamlet and Marianne Faithfull as
Ophelia.
In 1990 Franco Zeffirelli, whose Shakespeare films have been described
as "sensual rather than cerebral", cast Mel Gibson--then famous for
the 'Mad Max' and 'Lethal Weapon' movies--in the title role of his
1990 version; Glenn Close--then famous as the psychotic "other woman"
in 'Fatal Attraction'--played Gertrude, and Paul Scofield played
Hamlet's father.
Kenneth Branagh adapted, directed, and starred in a 1996 film version
of 'Hamlet' that contained material from the First Folio and the
Second Quarto. Branagh's 'Hamlet' was the first unabridged theatrical
film adaptation of the play and has a runtime of 242 minutes (just
over four hours). Branagh set the film with late 19th-century
costuming and furnishings, a production in many ways reminiscent of a
Russian novel of the time, and Blenheim Palace, built in the early
18th century, became Elsinore Castle in the external scenes. The film
is structured as an epic and makes frequent use of flashbacks to
highlight elements not made explicit in the play: Hamlet's sexual
relationship with Kate Winslet's Ophelia, for example, or his
childhood affection for Yorick (played by Ken Dodd).
In 2000, Michael Almereyda's 'Hamlet' set the story in contemporary
Manhattan, with Ethan Hawke playing Hamlet as a film student. Claudius
(played by Kyle MacLachlan) became the CEO of "Denmark Corporation",
having taken over the company by killing his brother.
The 2014 Bollywood film 'Haider' is an adaptation set in modern
Kashmir.
Derivative works
======================================================================
This section is limited to derivative works written for the stage.
Tom Stoppard's 1966 play 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'
retells many of the events of the story from the point of view of the
characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and gives them a backstory of
their own. Several times since 1995, the American Shakespeare Center
has mounted repertories that included both 'Hamlet' and 'Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern', with the same actors performing the same roles in
each.
W. S. Gilbert wrote a short comic play titled 'Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern', in which Hamlet's play is presented as a tragedy
written by Claudius in his youth of which he is greatly embarrassed.
Through the chaos triggered by Hamlet's staging of it, Guildenstern
helps Rosencrantz vie with Hamlet to make Ophelia his bride.
Lee Blessing's 'Fortinbras' is a comical sequel to 'Hamlet' in which
all the deceased characters come back as ghosts. 'The New York Times'
said it is "scarcely more than an extended comedy sketch, lacking the
portent and linguistic complexity of Tom Stoppard's 'Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead'. 'Fortinbras' operates on a far less ambitious
plane, but it is a ripping yarn and offers Keith Reddin a role in
which he can commit comic mayhem".
Caridad Svich's '12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs)' includes
elements of the story of 'Hamlet' but focuses on Ophelia. In Svich's
play, Ophelia is resurrected and rises from a pool of water, after her
death in 'Hamlet'. The play is a series of scenes and songs, and was
first staged at a public swimming pool in Brooklyn.
David Davalos's 'Wittenberg' is a "tragical-comical-historical"
prequel to 'Hamlet' that depicts the Danish prince as a student at
Wittenberg University (now known as the University of
Halle-Wittenberg), where he is torn between the conflicting teachings
of his mentors John Faustus and Martin Luther. 'The New York Times'
reviewed the play, saying, "Mr. Davalos has molded a daft campus
comedy out of this unlikely convergence", and 'Nytheatre.com's' review
said the playwright "has imagined a fascinating alternate reality, and
quite possibly, given the fictional Hamlet a back story that will
inform the role for the future."
'Mad Boy Chronicle' by Canadian playwright Michael O'Brien is a dark
comedy loosely based on 'Hamlet', set in Viking Denmark in 999 AD.
In 2025 Radiohead's Thom Yorke collaborated with directors Steven
Hoggett and Christine Jones at the Royal Shakespeare Company to make a
work fusing Hamlet with Radiohead's album Hail To The Thief. The work
featured Samuel Blenkin as Hamlet.
See also
======================================================================
* List of idioms attributed to Shakespeare
References
============
All references to 'Hamlet', unless otherwise specified, are taken from
the Arden Shakespeare Q2. Under their referencing system, 3.1.55 means
act 3, scene 1, line 55. References to the First Quarto and First
Folio are marked 'Hamlet Q1' and 'Hamlet F1', respectively, and are
taken from the Arden Shakespeare 'Hamlet: the texts of 1603 and 1623'.
Their referencing system for Q1 has no act breaks, so 7.115 means
scene 7, line 115.
External links
======================================================================
* [
http://www.bl.uk/works/hamlet 'Hamlet'] at the British Library
*
*
*
Analysis
==========
* [
http://shea.mit.edu/ramparts Hamlet on the Ramparts]The MIT's
Shakespeare Electronic Archive.
* [
http://www.hamletworks.org Hamletworks.org]Scholarly resource with
multiple versions of 'Hamlet', commentaries, concordances, and more.
*
[
http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/HamletPaintings.html
Depictions and commentary of Hamlet paintings]
* [
http://clearshakespeare.com/category/hamlet/ Clear Shakespeare
'Hamlet']A word-by-word audio guide through the play.
License
=========
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
