hamlet
Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is
based on a 12th century tale by Saxo Grammaticus,
which Shakespeare most certainly never saw, and is
part of a spate of revenge dramas which were extemely
popular around the turn of the seventeenth century;
the missing link between Saxo and Shakespeare may be
an earlier play about Hamlet (called by scholars the
Ur-Hamlet), which may or may not have been written by
the Ur-Revenger himself, Thomas Kyd, based in turn on
François de Belleforest's Histoires tragiques (1570),
a free translation of Saxo.
The revenge drama derived originally from the Roman
tragedies of Seneca but was established on the English
stage by Thomas Kyd with The Spanish Tragedie (c.
1590). This work, which opens with the Ghost of Andrea
and Revenge, deals with Hieronimo, a Spanish gentleman
who is driven to melancholy by the murder of his son.
Between spells of madness, he discovers who the
murderers are and plans his ingenious revenge. He
stages a play in which the murderers take part, and,
while enacting his role, Hieronimo actually kills
them, then kills himself. The influence of this play,
so apparent in Hamlet (performed c. 1600-01), is also
evident in other plays of the period. -- Excerpted
from "Revenge Tragedy," Shakespeare and the Globe:
Then and Now, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Amleth, Prince of Denmark
Amleth, Prince of Denmark, from the Gesta Danorum of
Saxo Grammaticus, edited by D. L. Ashliman, is at the
University of Pittburgh.
Saxo's tale of Amleth, written about 1185 C.E. but
based on earlier materials, is source for the story
that would become Shakespeare's Hamlet. The complete
Gesta Danorum with extensive introductory notes is
available in English as The Nine Books of the Danish
History of Saxo Grammaticus, in the Oliver Elton
translation (Norroena Society, New York, 1905) at
Berkeley. The Gesta is also available in the orignal
Latin at the Danish National Literature Archive (Dansk
Nationallitterart Arkiv).
The Play
"When people ask, 'Why do Hamlet?', I say all the
answers are contained in Bleak Midwinter. Those
answers include: I don't know. I have to. It's funny.
It's marvellous. It's ridiculous. It's meaningful.
It's meaningless." -- Kenneth Branagh
The Enfolded Hamlet, a searchable color-coded variorum
Hamlet, by Bernice W. Kliman. "The Enfolded Hamlet is
a child born of struggle. When I approached colleagues
about collaborating on the new variorum Hamlet project
I have coordinated since 1987 ... their first question
was, Which copy-text, Q2 (1604/5) or F1 (1623)?' To my
response, 'F1,' they raised eyebrows: well, that would
be daring. The main argument against the folio - that
it is a text contaminated by theatrical experience -
was for me the principal argument in its favor...'"
A Teacher CyberGuide for Hamlet, developed for the
Schools of California Online Resources for Educators
(SCORE) Project.
And Other Fun Stuff
The Tale of "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark," from Charles
and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.
In the Bleak Midwinter, released in the US as A
Midwinter's Tale, has been described as "Spinal Tap
for the Shakespeare set." This black-and-white
mock-documentary of the attempts of an impassioned
director (Michael Maloney) to stage a production of
Hamlet in a rustic church over the Christmas holidays
may be director Kenneth Branagh's most painfully
delightful film. Not to be missed. - PKM
Hamlet in Klingon, from the Klingon Shakespeare
Restoration Project. "The Klingon version is the
result of years of painstaking work by a team of
scholars, who worked to capture both the meaning and
the poetry of the Bard's most famous play in
Klingon... Cultural references, poetic structure,
writing style, and even wordplay are all represented
in the Klingon version, recreated in Klingon, not
merely copied in new lettering." |
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