     the tragedy of hamlet, prince of denmark, often shortened to hamlet, is a tragedy written by william shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. set in the kingdom of denmark, the play dramatises the revenge prince hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle claudius. claudius had murdered his own brother, hamlet's father king hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother's widow, hamlet's mother gertrude. hamlet is shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in english literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others."thompson and taylor (2006a, 74). the play seems to have been one of shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most-performed, topping the performance list of the royal shakespeare company and its predecessors in stratford-upon-avon since 1879.crystal and crystal (2005, 66). it has inspired writers from goethe and dickens to joyce and murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after cinderella".thompson and taylor (2006a, 17). the story of hamlet ultimately derives from the legend of amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler saxo grammaticus in his gesta danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar franÃ§ois de belleforest. shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier (hypothetical) elizabethan play known today as the ur-hamlet, though some scholars believe he himself wrote the ur-hamlet, later revising it to create the version of hamlet we now have. he almost certainly created the title role for richard burbage, the leading tragedian of shakespeare's time.see taylor (2002, 4); banham (1998, 141); hattaway asserts that "richard burbage ... played hieronimo and also richard iii but then was the first hamlet, lear, and othello" (1982, 91); peter thomson argues that the identity of hamlet as burbage is built into the dramaturgy of several moments of the play: "we will profoundly misjudge the position if we do not recognise that, whilst this is hamlet talking about the groundlings, it is also burbage talking to the groundlings" (1983, 24); see also thomson on the first player's beard (1983, 110). in the 400 years since, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors from each successive age. three different early versions of the play are extant, the first quarto (q1,
1600s_plays Death_in_fiction Denmark_in_fiction English_Renaissance_plays Ghosts_in_popular_culture Hamlet Metafictional_works Plays_adapted_into_films Revenge_plays Shakespearean_tragedies Suicide_in_fiction Works_set_in_castles_and_fortresses