Hamlet

Shakespeare's tragedy of the melancholy Prince of Denmark, avenging his father's murder amid court intrigue and philosophical doubt.

Specifications & Metrics

author

William Shakespeare

type

Tragedy

era

Elizabethan (c. 1599–1601; printed 1603 & 1623)

language

Early Modern English

setting

Elsinore Castle, Denmark

source text

Saxo Grammaticus's Amleth legend via Belleforest

acts

5 acts

Relative Scale in Plays

Core Principles & Analysis

• Written around 1599–1601 and first printed in a 1603 quarto, it is Shakespeare's longest play.
• The revenge plot descends from the Amleth legend of Saxo Grammaticus through Belleforest's French adaptation.
• 'To be, or not to be' in Act 3 is the most quoted soliloquy in English drama.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Hamlet