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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a classic tragedy by William Shakespeare. Believed to have been written between 1599 and 1901, the play traces the story of Prince Hamlet, out to exact revenge on his uncle Claudius for having killed his father, assumed the throne and married his mother Gertrude. Depending on the reader's interpretation of the play, Hamlet either feigns madness or goes mad as he moves from grief to rage.
Hamlet is arguably Shakespeare's most widely-interpreted, adapted and performed play. In film alone, Hamlet has been played by Laurence Olivier, Mel Gibson, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, and Ethan Hawke.
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Fast Facts
- Published in first Quarto in 1603
- Main Protagonist: Hamlet
- Longest play in Shakespeare's canon
- "To Be or Not To Be"
- "What a Piece of work is a Man"
- "Alas Poor Yorick! I Knew him"
- "Frailty, thy name is Woman!"
- "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"
- "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
- "The play's the thing wherin I'll catch the conscience of the king"
- "The lady doth protest too much"
- "O! what a rogue and peasant slave am I!"
- "When sorrows come, they come not single spies,But in battalions"
- "The rest is silence"
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"To be, or not to be" Soliloquy
- To be, or not to be, that is the question;
- Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
- The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune
- Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
- And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep;
- No more; and by a sleep to say we end
- The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
- That flesh is heir to — 'tis a consummation
- Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
- To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
- For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
- When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
- Must give us pause. There's the respect
- That makes calamity of so long life,
- For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
- Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
- The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
- The insolence of office, and the spurns
- That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
- When he himself might his quietus make
- With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
- To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
- But that the dread of something after death,
- The undiscovered country from whose bourn
- No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
- And makes us rather bear those ills we have
- Than fly to others that we know not of?
- Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
- And thus the native hue of resolution
- Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
- And enterprises of great pitch and moment
- With this regard their currents turn awry,
- And lose the name of action.
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William Shakespeare | Othello, The Moor of Venice | Macbeth | Romeo and Juliet | Titus Andronicus | Julius Caesar | King Lear | Antony and Cleopatra | Timon of Athens | Coriolanus | Kenneth Branagh | Kevin Kline | Mel Gibson | Glenn Close | Ethan Hawke | Julia Stiles | Kate Winslet | Helena Bonham Carter | Laurence Olivier | Vanessa Redgrave | A Bunch of Amateurs
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SparkNotes: Hamlet Study Guide
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Complete Text: Hamlet by William Shakespeare
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Video: Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1 Soliloquy (Time 3:05)
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Hamlet
folger.edu -
Wikipedia: Hamlet
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Internet Shakespeare Editions: Hamlet Home Page
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Project Gutenberg: Hamlet Downloadable Full Text
gutenberg.org
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SparkNotes: Hamlet Study Guide
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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark on Twitter Powered by Twitter
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Consider this statement: 'Hamlet was a Prince of Denmark' - Betrand Russell
@shomeshome | November 08, 2009 11:09 AM -
This date 1860 New Princess's Theatre opened n London with Hamlet with Edwin Booth(brother of John Wilkes Booth) as the Prince of Denmark
@goodeenuff | November 07, 2009 02:17 AM -
"Hamlet Prince of Denmark" Full Cast Dramatization in audio book download http://bit.ly/187WPF
@Drama_Audio | November 04, 2009 11:02 PM -
CMonter| Broadway's 'Hamlet,' starring Jude Law, recoups costs: Maybe the melancholy Prince of Denmark .. http://bit.ly/4vfH43
@LosAngelesCArss | November 04, 2009 09:02 PM -
Broadway's 'Hamlet,' starring Jude Law, recoups costs - Maybe the melancholy Prince of Denmark should re-consider t... http://ow.ly/15ZrIM
@arttherapyart | November 04, 2009 08:29 PM
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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark on Amazon | View All
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Understanding Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - $14.98
Understanding Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Everyone should be familiar with the timeless works of William Shakespeare. Now with Understanding Shakespeare, everyone can! This Tragedy Series brings four of ...
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Great Teachers Great Texts - The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark
Ronald Rebholz, professor and chair of Stanford's English Department came to Stanford in 1961, where he specializes in Renaissance literature. Author of "The Life of Fulke Greville: First Lord Brooke" and an edition of the poems of Sir Thom...
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Kurt Adler Steinbach 17-Inch Limited Edition German Nutcracker Shakespeare Series, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - $433.50
17-Inch Wooden Steinbach Hamlet Prince of Denmark Nutcracker. 2nd of Shakespeare Series. Limited Edition 5,000 pieces.
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Hamlet: Prince of Denmark - $7.99
"To Be, or Not to Be, That is the Question."<p>Here is the novelization of Shakespeare's, "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." It has been adapted to allow modern readers of the 21st Century to enjoy the work of The Bard, wh...
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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - $7.95
An uncluttered presentation of Hamlet, typeset as poetry to bring the Bard's immortal voice to the fore (much as it would have been in the original manuscript) and free of distracting extrania and over-busy layout. Scholarly versions are av...
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Questions and Answers About Hamlet, Prince of Denmark | View All | Ask a Question
View All Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Questions (119) | Ask a QuestionIs Hamlet overrated? (3 Answers)Hamlet is considered great for a variety of reasons - including that it's a great example of the sense of individualism that characterized the Renaissance. It is also considered to ... read moreWhy are people in Denmark Happy? (1 Answer)Denmark is considered one of the happiest places to live because they have good health care, a higher GDP domestic product per capita, and access to education( free university). read moreDoes Hamlets mom know about Claudius? (1 Answer)My initial thought is she absolutely knows but pushes it out of her mind in an attempt to deny the truth about Claudius.This paper I found seems to suggest otherwise, ... read more
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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in TV and Films
- Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.
- 1948: Hamlet (Laurence Olivier)
- 1964: Hamlet (Richard Burton)
- 1969: Hamlet (Nicol Williamson)
- 1980: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (TV) (Derek Jacobi)
- 1990: Hamlet (Kevin Kline)
- 1990: Hamlet (Mel Gibson)
- 1996: Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh)
- 2000: Hamlet (Ethan Hawke)
- 2000: Hamlet (TV) (Campbell Scott)
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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark inspired TV and Films
- Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.
- 1960: The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa)
- 1983: Strange Brew
- 1990: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
- 1994: The Lion King
- 1995: A Midwinter's Tale (Kenneth Branagh)
- 2006: Ye yan (The Banquet) (Ziyi Zhang)




