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Introduction
Hamlet is a tragedy of love, faithlessness and ambition. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, already depressed by the death of his father, is disgusted at what he considers to be the over-hasty marriage of his mother, Gertrude, to his father's brother Claudius, who has succeeded to the throne. When his father's ghost appears on the battlements of the royal castle of Elsinore and tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Gaudius, Hamlet plots revenge. Feigning madness to disguise his intentions, he repudiates Ophelia, the daughter of the Great Chamberlain Polonius, whom he loves. When a group of visiting play-actors visit the castle, he arranges fof them to re-enact his father's murder, and from the King's reaction to the play he becomes convinced of Claudius* guilt. Realising the threat which Hamlet poses, Claudius sends him to England with the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstem with the intention of having Hamlet killed on his arrival. Hamlet uncovers the scheme and the two courtiers are killed in his stead. Returning to Denmark, Hamlet discovers that Ophelia has drowned, having first gone mad with grief both at Hamlet's rejection of her and the death of Polonius who Hamlet had accidentally killed in mistake for the King. Ophelia's brother Laertes is persuaded that Hamlet is the villain of the piece and challenges him to a duel, but Claudius proposes a fencing match instead, and arranges for Laertes to have a poisoned foil. After an exchange of weapons, Hamlet and Laertes are mortally wounded, but before he dies, Hamlet manages to kill Claudius after Gertrude has drunk poisoned wine intended for her son. Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, fresh from victories in the Polish wars, enters to find that with his dying breath, Hamlet has named him as his successor
Hamlet was probably completed in 1601, and undoubtedly it is the most voluminously discussed of Shakespeare's plays. It is thought that the source for the plot is based on a lost play of the same name, possibly by Thomas Kyd. In 1589 Thomas Nashe referred to 'whole Hamlet's of tragicall speeches', indicating that the story was already familiar to contemporaries. It had appeared in Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques in 1570 which was a retelling of the 13th century Historicae Danicae of Saxo Grammaticus, in which the first reference to Hamlet is to be found. A quarto edition