Hamlet

Shakespeare's sources

The story of Hamlet is found in the folk literature of Iceland, Ireland and Denmark.

The earliest reference we have to Hamlet is in an 11th-century Icelandic poem. His feigned madness was a popular theme in Icelandic and Viking folklore.

Early in the 12th century, Saxo Grammaticus wrote the story of Hamlet (or Amleth) in Historia Danica, though it did not appear in print until 1514. The story was translated into French by Francis de Belleforest in Histoires tragiques (1570). Shakespeare changes the names of Saxo's characters but many key elements are the same:

A king is murdered by his brother

The brother ascends the throne and marries the widowed queen

Queen Gerutha's son, Amleth, plots his revenge and feigns madness

The suspicious king tries to discover whether Amleth is really mad

A beautiful girl is used to spy on Amleth

Amleth is spied on by a court adviser as he talks to his mother, Gerutha and Amleth kills the spy

Amleth tells his mother he will pretend to be mad and she promises to help him revenge his father's murder

Amleth is sent into exile in England

Amleth returns to Denmark and kills his uncle with a sword

Amleth is crowned king but later dies in battle.

The Hamlet we know may have been based on an anonymous play, the so-called Ur-Hamlet (or 'original Hamlet'), which has been attributed to Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy. The play was very popular in the 1590s but lost and no copy of Ur-Hamlet exists. In 1594 the owner/manager of the Rose Theatre, Philip Henslowe (c.1550 - 1616), recorded a performance of what was probably Ur-Hamlet by the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

Other influences
It is thought that Shakespeare may have drawn upon:

a book by Timothy Bright, Treatise of Melancholy (!586) for some aspects of Hamlet's character

a pamphlet by Thomas Nashe called Pierce Pennilesse (1592) for Hamlet's attitude to the drunkenness in Denmark a familiar Elizabethan textbook by Isocrates called Ad Demonicum for Polonius's advice to Laertes

Montaigne's Essays (translated by John Florio and published in England in 1580) for the sceptical temper of Hamlet's mind.


			The story of Hamlet is found in the folk literature of Iceland, Ireland and Denmark. The earliest reference we have to Hamlet is in an 11th-century Icelandic poem. His feigned madness was a popular theme in Icelandic and Viking folklore. Early in the 12th century, Saxo Grammaticus wrote the story of Hamlet (or Amleth) in Historia Danica, though it did not appear in print until 1514. The story was translated into French by Francis de Belleforest in Histoires tragiques (1570). Shakespeare changes the names of Saxo's characters but many key elements are the same: A king is murdered by his brother The brother ascends the throne and marries the widowed queen Queen Gerutha's son, Amleth, plots his revenge and feigns madness The suspicious king tries to discover whether Amleth is really mad A beautiful girl is used to spy on Amleth Amleth is spied on by a court adviser as he talks to his mother, Gerutha and Amleth kills the spy Amleth tells his mother he will pretend to be mad and she promises to help him revenge his father's murder Amleth is sent into exile in England Amleth returns to Denmark and kills his uncle with a sword Amleth is crowned king but later dies in battle. The Hamlet we know may have been based on an anonymous play, the so-called Ur-Hamlet (or 'original Hamlet'), which has been attributed to Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy. The play was very popular in the 1590s but lost and no copy of Ur-Hamlet exists. In 1594 the owner/manager of the Rose Theatre, Philip Henslowe (c.1550 - 1616), recorded a performance of what was probably Ur-Hamlet by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It is thought that Shakespeare may have drawn upon: a book by Timothy Bright, Treatise of Melancholy (!586) for some aspects of Hamlet's character a pamphlet by Thomas Nashe called Pierce Pennilesse (1592) for Hamlet's attitude to the drunkenness in Denmark a familiar Elizabethan textbook by Isocrates called Ad Demonicum for Polonius's advice to Laertes Montaigne's Essays (translated by John Florio and published in England in 1580) for the sceptical temper of Hamlet's mind.