There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. . . . There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’Sundays. You must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end.
- Ophelia
Hamlet, act 4, scene 5; William Shakespeare
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601.
Some things you may know about Hamlet:
- It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words.
- Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother.
- Hamlet is considered among the most powerful and influential works of world literature.
- It was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most performed.
- The story of Shakespeare's Hamlet was derived from the legend of Amleth.
- Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet, though some scholars believe Shakespeare wrote the Ur-Hamlet as well.
- He wrote the title role for his friend, actor Richard Burbage to portray (complicated to prove, but almost certain).
But, do you know about Hamnet Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare was a father of three; eldest daughter Susana (born 1583) and twins; daughter Judith and son Hamnet (born 1585). Hamnet Shakespeare tragically died in 1596 at the age of 11. We do not know the cause for which young Hamnet lost his life. At that time in England, the Bubonic plague took the lives of a third of all children under the age of twelve. For myself however, after Hamnet Shakespeare's death, I find too many references to drowning within his father's works to ignore. In Hamlet, Ophelia, in her state of madness, climbs a willow tree. A branch breaks and she falls into a brook and drowns.
Was Hamlet influenced by Hamnet? This is long argued by scholars. At the time, the names Hamlet and Hamnet were considered virtually interchangeable. Hamnet Sadler, a friend for whom Hamnet Shakespeare was named, was even named as "Hamlett'' in William Shakespeare's will. There are a myriad of reasonings by academics for and against the ties between Hamnet and Hamlet.
For myself, frankly, William Shakespeare wrote a four and a half hour long tragedy about grief and death and the unfairness and confusion of it all, four years after the tragedy of losing his boy Hamnet. The title character of that play is one letter different. There isn't much to argue.
Hamlet is haunted by the ghost of his father. Hamlet spends the entire play searching for who to blame for that death, desperately seeking a revenge which might ease his grief- nothing does, but he destroys his entire world trying.
I wonder if Judith was allowed to be in that audience.
Logbook only. BYO Pen.