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Title:
Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
First Published in: 1602
Hamlet, a tragedy by Shakespeare, registered as 'latelie
Acted' in July 1602. A short, 'bad Quarto was published
1603 and another text, almost twice as long, 1604-5. The
Folio text (1623) adds some passages not in the Second
Quarto, and omits others. His chief nondramatic source
was Saxo Grammaticus's narrative in his Historiae
Danicae, as retold by Belleforest in his Histoires
Tragiques. Old Hamlet, king of Denmark, is recently dead,
and his brother Claudius has assumed the throne and
married his widow Gertrude. Young Hamlet, returning from
university at Wittenberg, learns from the ghost of his
father that Claudius murdered him by pouring poison into
his ear, and is commanded to avenge the murder without
injuring Gertrude. Hamlet warns his friend Horatio and
the guard (who have also seen the apparition) that he
intends to feign madness. and swears them to secrecy.
Immediately after his famous speech of deliberation
beginning in be, or not to be' (III. i) he repudiates
Ophelia. whom he has loved, while spied on by Claudius
and by Ophelia's father Polonius. He welcomes a troupe of
visiting players, and arranges a performance of a play
('the Mouse-trap') about fratricide, which Claudius
breaks off, in apparently guilty and fearful fury, when
the player Lucianus appears to murder his uncle by
pouring poison into his ear. Hamlet refrains from killing
Claudius while he is at prayer, hot stabs through the
arras in his mother's bedroom, killing the old counsellor
Polonius, before reprimanding his mother for her
affection for Claudius. Claudius sends Hamlet to Englattd
with sealed orders that he should be killed ott arrival.
Hamlet outwits him, however, returning to Denmark, having
arranged the deaths ttt his old friends Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. who were his uncle's agents. During Hamlets
absence Ophelia has gone mad with grief front Hamlet's
rejection of her and her father's death. and is found
drowned. Her brother Laertes retums from France intent on
avenging his sister's death. Hamlet and Laertes meet ttt
the graveyard where Ophelia is to be buried, and fight in
her grave. Claudius arranges a fencing match between
Hamlet and Laertes. giving the latter a poisoned foil; an
exchange of weapons results in the deaths of both
cootbatants, not before Gertrude has drunk poisoned cup
intended for her son, and the dying Hamlet has succeeded
in killing Claudius. Fortinbras, prince of Norway, whose
resolute military heroism has been alluded to throughout
the play, appears fresh from wars with Poland
Text file provided by:
Project Gutenberg
[?kB Zip file]