Other editions of book Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Tragedy

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Hamlet's mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness--from overwhelming grief to seething rage--and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

Critics have long called Hamlet a problematic, difficult, even undramatic play. Shakespeare appears less interested in conventional plot development, or even character development of minor characters, and instead focuses on a specific theme: the difficulty of action, the corruption of the soul and of the world, and eternal consequences. But for all that Hamlet is one of the most theatrical and self-conscious of Shakespearean plays. The play-within-a-play is but the most obvious example of how Shakespeare removes the actors from the audience. Hamlet is "meta" in the same way much early 21st Century culture is frequently so: we are constantly called to remember that the action on the stage is not real, that the actors are merely reciting lines in some larger drama. ---from the Introduction to this edition

Shakespeare (1564-1616) was the greatest playwright and poet in the English language. This edition of Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" is from The First Folio that was published posthumously in 1623. "Hamlet" was written between 1599 to 1601 and was Shakespeare’s longest play. The story was set in the Late Middle Ages (14th - 15th centuries) in Kronborg Castle in Helsingør (renamed by Shakespeare to Elsinore), Denmark. Shakespeare’s telling of the story of Prince Hamlet was derived from several notable sources:1.Books III and IV of "Gesta Danorum" (“History of the Danes,” 1200 CE) by Saxo Grammaticus (surname acquired because of his eloquent and flawless Latin); Saxo’s "Gesta Danorum" was the first important work of Danish history and tells of the rise and fall of their great rulers; and 2.Volume 5 (1570 CE) of "Histoires Tragiques," a French translation of Saxo by François de Belleforest. Saxo’s account of "Amleth" is thought to be the source for Hamlet—a clue is “Hamlet” is an anagram of “Amleth.” However, Shakespeare’s Hamlet owes but the outline of his story to Saxo. Following is a version of Amleth’s story adapted from “The Traditional Hamlet,” Chapter XXII of Donald A. Mackenzie’s Teutonic Myth and Legend (1912?):"King Rorik (a Viking and King of Denmark and Sweden) made two brothers, Horwendil and Feng, joint governors of Jutland. Their father, Gerwendil, was governor before them. Horwendil, the chief ruler, sought glory as a sea rover and challenged King Koll of Norway to fight a duel on a sea island they both wanted. Horwendil, being the bolder, suddenly flung his shield aside and grasped his sword with both hands. He made such a furious attack upon the King of Norway’s shield that it split in two, and Horwendil severed his foot. Relentless, Horwendil continued his vicious attack until King Koll fell dead before him. As Horwendil’s victories increased, so did his many gifts to King Rorik, who made him King of Jutland. The King’s beautiful daughter, Gerutha, wed Horwendil, and they had a son, Amleth. Due to his brother’s fortune and renown, Feng was stricken with jealously and killed Horwendil. Thereafter, he married Gerutha and usurped his brother’s throne. Feng declared to his new subjects that he had slain his brother to rescue Gerutha from Horwendil’s cruelty and threat of murder. Amleth was not deceived and, fearing for his own safety, feigned madness with great cunning so that he could live to slay the usurper."This annotated version of Shakespeare’s longest play includes the following:•385 endnotes that reference historical and mythological explanations as well as definitions of “Early Modern English.” The editor was determined to remain as close as possible to Shakespeare’s poetry and the timeless rhythm of his writing.•30 illustrations. Even though twenty-first century audiences are still enthralled by Shakespeare’s plays, he wrote for seventeenth century audiences. Sword fights were combined with a wealth of allegory, metaphor, and humorous caricatures that regaled audiences. During their reigns, both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I were his patrons.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare.The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English poet and playwright, regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems. His plays have been translated and performed more than any other playwright.

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. One of the greatest plays of all time, the compelling tragedy of the tormented young prince of Denmark continues to capture the imaginations of modern audiences worldwide. William Shakespeare's Hamlet follows the young prince Hamlet home to Denmark to attend his father's funeral. Hamlet is shocked to find his mother already remarried to his Uncle Claudius, the dead king's brother. And Hamlet

Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder.Quotes from the book:“This above all: to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.”“Doubt thou the stars are fire;Doubt that the sun doth moveDoubt truth to be a liar;But never doubt I love.”“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”Readers' reviews:“The story itself is incredibly interesting, and when you add Shakespeare's elegant verse on top of that it becomes absolutely brilliant. Add Hamlet himself into the mix and you have a masterpiece.” (Emma, goodreads.com)“The perfect story.” (Kyla, goodreads.com)“Tragedy and loyality is sampled in this book perfectly. Thanks to William Shakespeare, we can recognize feelings and traditions in those days.” (Elizabeth Bennet, goodreads.com)

On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is indeed his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn.Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about the prince’s erratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. They employ a pair of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and declares that he wishes to ban marriages.A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an idea to test his uncle’s guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudius’s soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet’s madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent to England at once.Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudius’s plan for Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet be put to death.In the aftermath of her father’s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns in the river. Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his father’s and sister’s deaths. When Horatio and the king receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes’ desire for revenge to secure Hamlet’s death. Laertes will fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes’ blade so that if he draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as Ophelia’s funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since death can come at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudius’s orders to arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink from the king

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet (/ˈhæmlᵻt/), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of 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. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and is ranked among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others".[1] The play likely was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime,[2] and still ranks among his most performed, topping the performance list of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessors in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1879.[3] 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".[4]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 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier (hypothetical) 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.[5] In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by numerous highly acclaimed actors in each successive century.

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