The Oxford Dictionary of Plays

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Hamlet

Hamlet (The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke)

Author: William Shakespeare

Pf: c.1599–1601, London

Published: 1603 (1st quarto), 1604 (2nd quarto), 1623

Genre: Trag. in 5 acts; blank verse and prose

Setting: Elsinore and environs, Denmark, 10th c.

Cast: 26m, 2f, extras

On learning of the death of his father, the King of Denmark, Hamlet returns to Elsinore from Germany, where he has been studying, only to discover that his uncle Claudius is already on the throne and has married Hamlet's mother Gertrude. The ghost of Hamlet's father reveals that he was murdered by Claudius. Distraught at this heinous crime and at his mother's infidelity, Hamlet swears revenge. He repulses Ophelia, whom he had been wooing, and behaves with suspicion towards all except his old friend Horatio. When travelling players...

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