• Hamlet – son of the late king and nephew of the present king, Claudius
• Claudius – King of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle and brother to the former king
• Gertrude – Queen of Denmark and Hamlet's mother… See more

Prince Hamlet of Denmark is the son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude, Hamlet's m… See more

Hamlet-like legends are so widely found (for example in Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Byzantium, and Arabia) that the core "hero-as-fool" theme is possibly Indo-European in origin. Several ancient written precursors to Hamlet ca… See more

"Any dating of Hamlet must be tentative", states the New Cambridge editor, Phillip Edwards. MacCary suggests 1599 or 1600; James Shapiro offers late 1600 or early 1601; Wells and Taylor suggest that the play was writte… See more

Three early editions of the text, each different, have survived, making attempts to establish a single "authentic" text problematic.
• First Quarto (Q1): In 1603 the booksellers Nicholas Ling and … See more