Contents

Guide to Hamlet, The Theatre, and All That
Some Common Dramatic Elements in Shakespeare
Problems in Hamlet for the Modern Reader

Guide to Hamlet, Theatre, & All That

The general written account of Hamlet is at least 700 years old, counting references to the character in histories and plays.  The actual historical character goes back about 900 years.  Hamlet first appears as Amlethus in the Historica Danica (History of the Danes), written by Saxo Grammaticus in the 1100's.  The original source of the English play is a French story told in Histoires tragiques by Francois de Belleforest; this work was published in Paris in 1576.  You may wish to read Shakespeare:  The Complete Works, edited by G. B. Harrison (Harcourt, 1968).

With names in brackets identifying the equivalent characters in Shakespeare's play, the following is Belleforest account of Hamlet's story:

In pre-Christian times, there was a Danish Prince called Horvendile [Old Hamlet], who was married to Queen Geruth [Gertrude].  Their son was called Hamlet.  Prince Horvendile was murdered by his brother Fengon [Claudius], who thereupon married Queen Geruth. In order to escape from the tyranny of his uncle, Prince Hamlet pretended to be mad. Fengon was suspicious and tried to get at the truth by sending a harlot [the respectable Ophelia] to tempt Hamlet, but Hamlet was forewarned.  Then Fengon sent one of his councilors [Polonius] to hide secretly behind the arras of the Queen's chamber, so that he might overhear Hamlet's conversation with his mother.  Hamlet came into the chamber, pretending in his madness to be a cock, and beating his arms (which struck the curtain); then he fell upon the eavesdropper.  He slew him with his sword, cut the body into pieces, boiled them, and fed them to the hogs.

Fengon then sent Hamlet to the King of England, with sealed letters commanding that he should be put to death. On the voyage, Hamlet read the letters and exchanged them for others in which it was ordered that he himself should be married to the daughter of the King of England.  So Hamlet came back to Denmark, where he found that his supposed death was being celebrated in a mighty funeral feast.  He waited until the guests were dead-drunk, and then set fire to the hall and burned them all.  After this, he went up to his uncle's bedchamber and, delivering a speech on the duty of revenging his dead father, he cut off his uncle's head.

Hamlet now abandoned all pretense that he was mad. He summoned the Danes and made an oration in which he told the whole story, at which they were so moved that they proclaimed him king.  After his coronation, he went back to England to fetch his wife.  The King of England would have murdered him, but again he escaped.  Then the Queen of Scots, whose name was Hermetrude, fell in love with him and insisted on marrying him.  So Hamlet returned once more to Denmark with his two wives.  But Hermetrude soon tired of him; she fell in love with Wiglerus, another of his uncles, and caused Hamlet to be murdered.

The Hamlet story appeared in England as a play some time before 1589.  In that year, Thomas Nashe wrote a preface for Robert Greene's novel Menaphon and referred to "whole Hamlets" and "handfuls of tragical speeches."  Nashe may have been talking about Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy.  That work was about how old Hieronimo took vengeance on the murderers of his son Horatio.  Kyd may have followed up The Spanish Tragedy with a revenge play about how Prince Hamlet avenged his father's murder.

G. B. Harrison and other literary historians say there was a Hamlet play in existence and popular between 1589 and 1596, but the play was probably not Shakespeare's play as it is now known.  This lost play is called the Ur-Hamlet by some scholars.  The prefix Ur- means "original."  Shakespeare's play was probably written in 1600.

The revenge play featured a regular set of conventions.  Americans recognize its similar to the Western ("Yuh mangy varmint, yuh shot my brother.  Slap leather, you devil").  It was the duty of the next of kin had to avenge the death of a close relative.  It was "wild justice" -- but something more than justice, for a credit balance was necessary.  Harrison says the Old Law claimed "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but, for the Elizabethan audience, vengeance required elaborate and tortuous revenge, not just an eye for an eye, but both eyes, a nose cut off, teeth knocked out, and hideous torment of body and mind of the villain.  Moreover, when the villain was killed, an ideal revenge ensured that he would burn eternally in the fires of hell.  A perfect vengeance, therefore, demanded great skill.

Most revenge plays were written according to a common pattern.  They required these ingredients:

* a crime, invariably murder, whereby the duty of vengeance was laid on the next of kin

* the discovery of the murderer by the avenger, usually a matter of some difficulty

* major obstacles to prevent the revenge occurring

* a triumphant conclusion in which the murderer was destroyed in an appropriate manner.

Thomas Nashe's novel, Jack Wilton, The Unfortunate Traveller (1594), provides us with an excellent example of a satisfactory revenge.  Cutwolf wishes to exact vengeance on Edras, who had murdered his brother.  Cutwolf corners the villain, who frantically promises to commit any desperate act to save his own life.  Cutwolf describes what happened next:

First and foremost, [I told him that] he should renounce God and His laws, and utterly disclaim the whole title or interest in any covenant of salvation. Next, [I told him] he should curse [God] to His face, as Job was willed by his wife, and [he should write an absolute firm obligation of his soul to the Devil, without condition or exception.  Thirdly and lastly (having done this), [I told Edras] he should pray to God fervently never to have mercy upon him or pardon him. . .

These fearful ceremonies brought to an end, I bade him ope his mouth and gape wide.  He did so (as what will not slaves do for fear?); therewith made I no more ado, but shot him full into the throat with my pistol.  No more spake he after, so did I shoot him that he might never speak after, or repent him.  [With the fires of hell burning him,] his body being dead looked black as a toad.  The Devil presently branded it for his own.

Problems in Hamlet for the Modern Reader

1.  THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT:  Although we may be inclined to think of Shakespearean plays being
intellectual affairs (good for your knowledge), we forget that Shakespeare was a businessman who knew that many in the audience wanted sex and violence.  (Okay, so Shakespeare in Love gave us a sense of the Bard in action.)  The "groundlings" (those standing in the cheapest "seats") liked gore; hence, the avenger and many other characters must perish in one red ruin in the last act.  The play typically included at least one ghost and a mad scene.  His plays have lasted, not because teachers impose them on students, but because they entertain people in all centuries.

2.  GREAT CHAIN OF BEING:  Since God selected good rulers for people who pleased Him and bad rulers for miscreants deserving punishment, one was faced with the Divine Right of Kings.  You did not kill a king unless you wanted to commit a major sin.  (The best rulers, such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, had a practical view of a ruler's rights and built support for their actions.)

3.  INCEST:  It is written in the Bible: "Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife; it is thy brother's nakedness."  And again, "And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is impurity; he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shalt be childless."  The original admonition was designed to keep peace and order in the community and to eliminate adultery within an extended family.

The Renaissance princes were looking for loopholes that might be useful for getting annulments for marriages.  They ignored parts of the Bible that required a brother to look after, perhaps marry, the widow of a deceased brother (Deut. 25:5 and Matt. 22:24).  (Again, the intention was to keep stability in the village.)  Society today has no objection if a brother marries his brother's widow.

In the 1500's, Catherine of Aragon was betrothed and married to the future would-be king, Arthur, who died before consummating the marriage.  Catherine was married to Prince Henry, who became Henry VIII and who made a ritual protest about the legality of the marriage.  When their marriage produced no sons after about two decades, he claimed he had been living in sin and had been guilty of an incestuous relationship that the Church ought to annul.  The Pope, under the influence of powerful relatives of Catherine's, refused to grant the divorce, and Henry split away from the Roman Catholic Church.  Henry's second wife produced Elizabeth, whose legitimacy was questioned until she was queen (when it was no longer safe to raise such questions).  When Elizabeth was in power, others' legitimacy was questioned.

4.  SURVIVAL:  An Elizabethan aristocrat could easily lose his life, since the kingdom was filled with various conspiracies.  Elizabeth herself survived many potential traps before she reached the age of 20.  Your instructor argues that Prince Hamlet's closest model in Tudor England was the Princess Elizabeth.  A Hollywood producer and a professor at an American university have been in court as they argue that Hamlet is really about Martin Luther and his struggle to reform the Church.  They are both wrong, of course.  Princess Elizabeth or James (her successor, out of Scotland) are far closer models.

5.  AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE:  When we read of a Scandinavian prince from the 1100's and before, we have to keep in mind that this is the era of Vikings.  However, our Hamlet is not the historical Amleth.  Hamlet is a Renaissance figure, and, although the names at the court refer to a Danish court, the spirit is that of an English court.  On one hand, we must recognize that the Danes of Shakespeare's time did not automatically name the son of a dead king as their next king; hence, it was proper for brother Claudius to be named.  On the other hand, Shakespeare's court is more authentic than the historical courts who are shadows today.

6.  DEATH OBSESSION:  Not only did the royal house whack off the heads of aristocrats, the English kingdom engaged in a religious persecution.  Queen Mary (a Catholic) energetically killed Protestants; Queen Elizabeth (a Protestant) retaliated to the extent that she had to.  They also had death sentences handed out routinely to thieves and other criminals (with bodies left hanging or heads put on spikes to warn others to behave).  In addition, a plague struck in 1592-93 and killed more than 22,000 in London; and, in 1603 (years after the first performance of Hamlet) over 30,000 died in another plague.  The two epidemics killed one-fourth of the city's population.

7.  DRUNKENNESS:  If you notice the references to drinking and drunkenness in the play, you will an excellent essay question.  We forget that our forefathers and mums spent much of their time bombed out of their gourds.

8.  TIME UNJOINTED:  Whenever a great tragedy strikes, we often feel that life itself is disrupted.  With this in mind, Hamlet says:

The time is out of joint.  O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right.

Before he fights the fatal duel, he says to Horatio:

There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.
If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come,
it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all.

Some Common Dramatic Elements in Shakespeare

TRAIT                          "MACBETH"                  "JULIUS CAESAR"           "HAMLET"
 

The Taming of the Shrew

Playwrights love to write about the conflicts between a man and a woman (or men and women).  All they need is a stage, two actors, and they're in business.  The Taming of the Shrew has some sections that can be disturbing in our politically correct world, in which we are sensitive to spousal abuse, etc.

However, keep the following in mind:

·        The Shrew is an OLD literary and theatrical convention since each town and village had at least one wicked-tongued woman.

·        Katrina the Shrew has created chaos in her father's house by being stuck in the Terrible Two's.  She's trying to control everyone, and she's terribly frustrated.

·        Petruchio, who is broke, basically gives her a taste of her own medicine, as he pretends to be stuck in his Terrible Two's.

·        Katrina eventually learns that, if she keeps on doing what she's been doing, she's going to keep on getting what she's been getting.  Obviously, another tactic is required, and she learns to give the appearance of acquiescing to her husband.

·        Katrina's words at the end can be delivered at least two ways:  either straight and sincere or tongue in cheek, as she winks at the other women.

·        The actual marriage of Petruchio and Katrina comes at the end of the play, when they realize they are a team and can trust each other.

Typically, a comedy ends in a marriage, since that was the purpose of that type of drama or pageantry.

Some stock figures in comedy

When you study the history of comedy, you will find many “stock” figures.  These often date back to the Greeks and Romans, but certainly were used by Shakespeare:

1. The shrew:  woman with a waspish tongue.

2. The foolish old geezer:  in love with a young woman or with a young wife

3. The middle-aged fool in love:  a rival to the young swain, perhaps serious because of $$$ advantages he represents

4. The harried father:  having a fit trying to manage an uncontrollable household

5. Switched identities:  student swapping places with his teacher in "Shrew". . .Girls disguising themselves as boys (several plays, but not in "Shrew")

6.  The miser

7.  The battling spouses (Punch and Judy puppets and similar real-life characters)

8.  Others

A Quick Gallop through Hamlet's Theatres

 1400's and before:  Drama grows out of church services with priests  responding to other priests in Latin; then parts being read by laymen; then plays being performed outside church; etc.  Typical titles:  Abraham and Isaac and Everyman.

1500's:  Women are still excluded from plays in England.  The plays are often static by our standards.

1590-1610+:    Shakespeare is writing his plays.  He is also an actor, theater owner, manager, etc.  Their theatres (the Globe, etc.) grew out of the architecture of inns.  The plays used little scenery.

1623: First Folio (a collection of Shakespeare's plays) is published by his friends.

1640s:  Big fight between King Charles I and his team against the Puritans.  The decade ends with Charles having his head snicked off.  The Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell, take power and close the theatres.  Prince Charles and the royalists take cover, go to France, etc.

1650's:  Theatres still closed.  Royalists sit around whining, "Them froggies get to see plays, and their plays even have wimmen in them.  How come we can't have wimmen in ours?"

1660's:   Cromwell has died, and Prince Charles is brought over to become King Charles II.  He re-opens the theatres, but the theatres are desperate for material.  They dig out the old stuff by Shakespeare.

1670s+:  The English theatre gets its feet on the ground, begins to decide that the Bard was old-fashioned.  They begin to embrace the Unities (see Aristotle's Poetics):

                * Unity of Time (should take place, say, within 24 hours)
                * Unity of Place (should have one setting)
                * Unity of Action (should be about actions related to one problem to be solved)

New theatres are built using the proscenium arch (the "picture" stage).  John Dryden, using the Unities, turns Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra into All for Love, or The World Well Lost (not a bad work either).

1700s:  Golly, Shakespeare is old-fashioned, so theatres really "improve" the plays:  One revision has a happy ending for Romeo & Juliet; another omits The Fool from King Lear.  The dramatic companies prefer comedies of manners and plays with elaborate scenery.  If Shakespeare is performed, it is not uncommon for, say, the actor playing Hamlet to do the performance without really rehearsing with the other characters.  As the century goes on, Shakespeare is translated into other languages.  His plays begin to influence writers on the Continent, including Germany's Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Faust, Parts I and II).

1800's:  The Romantics look at the energy, the lack of unity, and the completeness of Shakespeare and find in him a kindred spirit.  The century ends with key actors and directors trying to get back to the original text and to perform the scenes more "naturally."  Painters use Hamlet, Ophelia, Romeo and Juliet, and other characters as subjects of their art work.

1900's:   The most performed playwright in the world is Shakespeare.  More Shakespearean plays are put on than those of George Bernard Shaw, Neil Simon, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Chekhov, etc. Motion pictures find a kindred spirit in Shakespeare, whose plays, in some respects, were like movies, with quick cuts in action (from one part of the stage to the other) and in setting.

21st Century:  No playwright in the English language appears to be surfacing to rival Shakespeare.

Who Belongs in the Big Show?

The ultimate test of a male actor is the role of King Lear; however, prior to attempting Lear, the actor's main challenge is the role of Hamlet.  In the 1960s, Richard Chamberlain, with a light-weight reputation, was starring as the TV series, "Dr. Kildare."  When the series ended, he performed Hamlet in the U.S. and Britain and proved he was worthy of "serious" projects.  Mel Gibson so far is the biggest Hollywood "star" to attempt the role; he acquitted himself well, even though he did not rival Gielgud or Olivier in the role.  Some actors who have attempted the role:
 

*His dying words, after a friend was lamenting that he was facing death:  "Well, it's easier than [performing] comedy."

The most important actors are given in capital letters.  Others may deserve more credit.  Notice that two women occur in the list.  Other productions have featured women playing the role of Hamlet.

Author of Shakespeare's Plays and Poems

Who wrote Shakespeare's plays?  Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Southampton?  Those who do not want to accept Shakespeare as the author generally have one or two hidden agendas:  They are prejudiced against the possibility of a common man being a genius in writing.  Or they simply want to be contrarians and attract attention for themselves.  (As children, such people stuffed English peas up their noses simply to be noticed.)

 Denson's First Principle of Princes, Dukes, and Kings is this:  If you're a duke or an aristocrat, that's what you are.  Royalty often tend to be ignorant as swans and cultural vacuums.  (Elizabeth I and her father wrote poetry and played music; it was stylish then, but blue-bloods usually don't produce great novels, plays, paintings, etc.  Charles and Di, for example, were a soap opera; neither could write one.)

What's so great about Shakespeare?  The scope of his understanding of the human soul is staggering.  Shakespeare could produce a universe of people, whereas too many TV shows, movies, etc. put cardboard characters before us.  In addition, movie/TV/etc. writers may ignore the importance of character:  "Hey, they really like our psychopathic killer Igor Bundy?  What if we have him fall in love with Stacie Starr?"  The audience is asked to ignore that he was a psychopath, to overlook that he has been transformed within a few episodes from blood-thirsty whacko to level-headed lover of the female love interest.  "They won't notice it out there" -- that's the modern excuse for poor writing.

Is Shakespeare our greater thinker among writers?  Probably not.  In many ways, he didn't think; he laid out situations and often intuitively explored character.  There are "abler thinkers" in the world.

Why is he so popular?  The productions are fun and yield excellent material for such groups as Florida's Asolo Theatre, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, etc., etc.  His plays can be interpreted many ways, and, although they are Elizabethan in many respects, there are enough timeless features to speak to the audiences of the late 20th Century.  Over 300 versions have been done of his plays (especially Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, etc.).

IT'S A JOKE, SON:  One question to John Barrymore elicited the following joking responses:  "Did Hamlet sleep with Ophelia?"  Barrymore usually responded, "Only in the Chicago company" or "I always did."

Shakespeare and Paintings

It shouldn't be surprising that Shakespeare's plays have inspired many artists to paint, say, Hamlet and the gravedigger, Ophelia and the river, the witches of Macbeth, and so on.  For examples of such paintings and drawings, click here.

Go to Ren. to 20th Century Densonary, Part 5.

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