Sources of Hamlet - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The sources of Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, a tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601, trace back as far as pre-13th century Icelandic tales. The generic "hero-as-fool" story is so old and is expressed in the literature of so many cultures that scholars have hypothesized that it may be Indo-European

Proto-Indo-Europeans

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...

in origin. A Scandinavian version of the story of Hamlet, Amleth or Amlóði (Norse for "mad", "not sane") was put into writing in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus

Saxo Grammaticus

Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...

around 1200 AD in the Gesta Danorum

Gesta Danorum

Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...

(from which Shakespeare borrowed). Similar accounts are found in the Icelandic Saga of Hrolf Kraki

Hrólfs saga kraka

Hrólfs saga kraka, the Saga of King Hrolf kraki, is a late legendary saga on the adventures of Hrólfr Kraki and his clan, the Skjöldungs. The events can be dated to the late 5th century and the 6th century. It is believed to have been written in the period c. 1230 - c. 1450...

and the Roman legend of Brutus, both of which feature heroes who pretend to be insane in order to get revenge. A reasonably accurate version of Saxo's story was translated into French in 1570 by François de Belleforest
François de Belleforest
François de Belleforest was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in a poor family and his father was killed when he was seven...

in his Histoires Tragiques. Belleforest embellished Saxo's text substantially, almost doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...

.

After this point, the ancestry of Shakespeare's version of Hamlet becomes more difficult to trace. Many literary scholars believe that Shakespeare's main source was an earlier play—now lost—known today as the Ur-Hamlet

Ur-Hamlet

The Ur-Hamlet is the name given to a play mentioned as early as 1589, a decade before most scholars believe Shakespeare composed Hamlet...

Prince Hamlet

Prince Hamlet is a fictional character, the protagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius and son of the previous King of Denmark, Old Hamlet. Throughout the play he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and...

does not appear to have a complete plan of action. The play's setting in Elsinore also differs from legendary versions.

Scandinavian and other legends

The story of the prince who plots revenge on his uncle (the current king) for killing his father (the former king) is an old one. Many of the story elements—the prince feigning madness and his testing by a young woman, the prince talking to his mother and her hasty marriage to the usurper, the prince killing a hidden spy and substituting the execution of two retainers for his own—are found in a medieval tale by Saxo Grammaticus

Saxo Grammaticus

called Vita Amlethi (part of his larger Latin work Gesta Danorum

Gesta Danorum

), which was written around 1200 AD. Older written and oral traditions from various cultures influenced Saxo's work. Amleth (as Hamlet is called in Saxo's version) probably derived from an oral tale told throughout Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

. Parallels can be found with Icelandic

Icelanders

Icelanders are a Scandinavian ethnic group and a nation, native to Iceland.On 17 June 1944, when an Icelandic republic was founded the Icelanders became independent from the Danish monarchy. The language spoken is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and Lutheranism is the predominant religion...

legend, though no written version of the original Icelandic tale survives from before the 16th century. Torfaeus, a scholar in 17th century Iceland, made the connection between Saxo's Amleth and local oral tradition about a Prince Ambales, nicknamed Amloði (meaning "Fool"). However, Torfaeus dismissed the local tradition as "an old wive's tale" due to its incorporation fairy-tale elements and quasi-historical legend and Torfaeus' own confusion about the hero's country of origin (not recognizing Cimbria as a name for Denmark). Similarities include the prince's feigned madness, his accidental killing of the king's counsellor in his mother's bedroom, and the eventual slaying of his uncle.

Scholars have speculated about the ultimate source of the 'hero as fool' story, but no definitive candidate has emerged. Given the many different cultures from which Hamlet-like legends come (Roman, Spanish, Scandinavian and Arabic), some surmise that the story may be Indo-European

Proto-Indo-Europeans

in origin.

Influences on Saxo Grammaticus

The two most popular candidates for written works that may have influenced Saxo, however, are the anonymous Scandinavian Saga of Hrolf Kraki

Hrólfs saga kraka

and the Roman legend of Brutus, which is recorded in two separate Latin works. In Saga of Hrolf Kraki, the murdered king has two sons—Hroar

Hroðgar

Hroðgar, King Hroþgar, "Hrothgar", Hróarr, Hroar, Roar, Roas or Ro was a legendary Danish king, living in the early 6th century....

and Helgi

Halga

Halga, Helgi, Helghe or Helgo was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century. His name would in his own language have been *Hailaga ....

—who assume the names of Ham and Hráni for concealment. They spend most of the story in disguise, rather than feigning madness, though Ham does act childishly at one point to deflect suspicion. The sequence of events differs from Shakespeare's as well. In contrast, the Roman story of Brutus focuses on feigned madness. Its hero, Lucius ('shining, light'), changes his name and persona to Brutus ('dull, stupid'), playing the role to avoid the fate of his father and brothers, and eventually slaying his family's killer, King Tarquinus. In addition to writing in the Latin language of the Romans, Saxo adjusted the story to reflect classical Roman concepts of virtue and heroism. A reasonably accurate version of Saxo's story was translated into French in 1570 by François de Belleforest

François de Belleforest

François de Belleforest was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in a poor family and his father was killed when he was seven...

in his Histoires Tragiques. Belleforest embellished Saxo's text substantially, almost doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...

.

The Ur-Hamlet

Shakespeare's main source is believed to be an earlier play—now lost—known today as the Ur-Hamlet

Ur-Hamlet

The Ur-Hamlet is the name given to a play mentioned as early as 1589, a decade before most scholars believe Shakespeare composed Hamlet...

. Possibly written by Thomas Kyd
Thomas Kyd
Thomas Kyd was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama....

, The Ur-Hamlet would have been in performance by 1589, and was seemingly the first to include a ghost in the story. Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men
Lord Chamberlain's Men
The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company for whom Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I.It was...

, may have purchased that play and performed a version, which Shakespeare reworked, for some time. Since no copy of the Ur-Hamlet has survived, however, it is impossible to compare its language and style with the known works of any candidate for its authorship. Consequently, there is no direct evidence that Kyd wrote it, nor any evidence that the play was not an early version of Hamlet by Shakespeare himself. This latter idea—placing Hamlet far earlier than the generally-accepted date, with a much longer period of development—has attracted some support, though others dismiss it as speculation. This is not conclusive, however, as other already existing Shakespeare plays were also not on Meres' list.

The upshot is that scholars cannot assert with any confidence how much material Shakespeare took from the Ur-Hamlet (if it even existed), how much from Belleforest or Saxo, and how much from other contemporary sources (such as Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy

The Spanish Tragedy

The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent...

). No clear evidence exists that Shakespeare made any direct references to Saxo's version (although its Latin text was widely available at the time). However, elements of Belleforest's version do appear in Shakespeare's play but are not in Saxo's story. Whether Shakespeare took these from Belleforest directly or through the Ur-Hamlet remains unclear.

It is clear, though, that several elements did change somewhere between Belleforest's and Shakespeare's versions. For one, unlike Saxo and Belleforest, Shakespeare's play has no all-knowing narrator, and he thus invites the audience to draw their own conclusions about its characters' motives. The traditional story also is spread across several years, while Shakespeare's covers a few weeks. Belleforest's version details Hamlet's plan for revenge, while in Shakespeare's play Hamlet has no apparent plan. Shakespeare also added some elements that located the action in 15th-century Christian Denmark, rather than a medieval pagan setting. Elsinore

Elsinore

Helsingør is a city and the municipal seat of Helsingør municipality on the northeast coast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. Helsingør has a population of 46,279 including the southern suburbs of Snekkersten and Espergærde...

, for example, would have been familiar to Elizabethan England, as a new castle had been built recently there, and Wittenberg, Hamlet's university, was widely known for its Protestant teachings. Other elements of Shakespeare's Hamlet absent in medieval versions include the secrecy that surrounds the old king's murder, the inclusion of Laertes and Fortinbras

Fortinbras

Fortinbras is the name of two minor fictional characters from William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. The more notable is a Norwegian crown prince with a few brief scenes in the play, who delivers the final lines that represent a hopeful future for the monarchy of Denmark and its subjects...

(who offer parallels to Hamlet), the testing of the king via a play, and Hamlet's death at the moment he gains his revenge.

Elizabethan court

For over a century, Shakespearean scholars have identified several of the play's major characters with specific members of the Elizabethan court. In 1869, George Russell French

George Russell French

George Russell French , antiquary, was born in London in 1803.After being privately educated he became an architect, and was for many years surveyor and architect to the Ironmongers' Company. French was an accomplished scholar, and devoted his leisure to antiquarian researches...

theorized that Hamlets Polonius

Polonius

Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. He is King Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet...

might have been inspired by William Cecil

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...

(Lord Burghley)—Lord High Treasurer and chief counsellor to Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

. French also speculated that the characters of Polunius children, Ophelia

Ophelia

Ophelia is a fictional character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet.-Plot:...

and Laertes

Laertes

In Greek mythology, Laërtes was the son of Arcesius and Chalcomedusa. He was the father of Odysseus and Ctimene by his wife Anticlea, daughter of the thief Autolycus. Laërtes was an Argonaut and participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar...

, represented two of Burghley's children, Anne and Robert Cecil

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC was an English administrator and politician.-Life:He was the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Mildred Cooke...

. In 1930, E. K. Chambers suggested Polonius's advice to Laertes may have echoed Burghley's to his son Robert, and in 1932, John Dover Wilson commented "the figure of Polonius is almost without doubt intended as a caricature of Burleigh, who died on 4 August 1598". In 1963, A. L. Rowse

A. L. Rowse

Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH, FBA , known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to friends and family as Leslie, was a British historian from Cornwall. He is perhaps best known for his work on Elizabethan England and his poetry about Cornwall. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer...

agreed that Polonius's tedious verbosity might have resembled Burghley's.

Lilian Winstanley thought the name Corambis (Polonius' name in the Ist Quarto) suggested Burghley, although Krystyna Kujawinska Courtney, has pointed out that the name "Corambis" translates to "reheated cabbage" in Latin, i.e. "a boring old man".

In 1921, Winstanley claimed "absolute" certainty that "the historical analogues exist; that they are important, numerous, detailed and undeniable" and that "Shakespeare is using a large element of contemporary history in Hamlet." Agreeing with earlier researchers, Winstanley noted numerous Polonius/Burghley parallels, and compared the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet, with that of Burghley's daughter, Anne Cecil, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, and is currently the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works....

; Winstanley also noted similar parallels with the relationship of Elizabeth Vernon and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton

Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton

Henry Wriothesley , 3rd Earl of Southampton , was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu...

.

Harold Jenkins criticised the idea of any direct personal satire as "unlikely" and "uncharacteristic of Shakespeare", while G.R.Hibbard hypothesized that differences in names (Corambis/Polonius:Montano/Raynoldo) between the first quarto

Hamlet Q1

Q1 of Hamlet, or the "First Quarto" as it is also called, is a short and generally inferior early text of the Shakespearean play, entered in the Stationers' Register in 1602 but not published until summer or autumn 1603...

and subsequent editions might reflect a desire not to offend scholars at Oxford University.

Life of James the First

Henry Brown, in his book "King James I Of England and VI Of Scotland," suggests that the plot of Hamlet mirrors the events surrounding the life and particularly the childhood of this Scottish king. If this is true, the character of Hamlet would be loosely based upon King James the first, Gertrude upon Mary Queen of Scots, Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley) upon the dead King Hamlet and the Earl of Bothwell upon Claudius.

King James' mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was notorious throughout Europe for her disastrous marriages. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was the father of King James and the first of the Queen's husbands. On February 10th, 1567, after a separation, the Mary visited the King. After Mary left, the house blew up and Lord Darnley was found naked and strangled in his orchard. Rumors spread throughout Europe suggesting that Mary Queen of Scots and her lover, the Earl of Bothwell, had murdered the former king, Lord Darnley.

These occurrences reflect the plot of Shakespeare's masterpiece, Hamlet. Darnley was killed in his orchard as was the dead king Hamlet. Both kings also suffered from black pimples which covered their bodies after death, "And a most instant tether barked about/ Most lazar-like with vile and loathsome crust/ All my smooth body," (Hamlet, I,v, 78-80). It is well known that Lord Darnley was suffering from syphilis; these growths are a sign of the last stages of the disease.

Gertrude's haste to wed, mirrors that of Mary, who married her lover, the Earl of Bothwell, three months after Darnley's death. Gertrude waited two months before her marriage to Claudius. And James I was brought up with the firm belief that his father had been murdered and should be avenged. His grandparents commissioned the picture entitled The Darnley Memorial. This portrait displays the royal family, minus the King and Queen, kneeling in prayer beside Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley's tomb. Lord Darnley is dressed in the same manner as old Hamlet, "cap-a-pie," (I,ii,210).

Hamlet and James I both openly declared their mothers innocent of their father's murder, but privately they both had doubts. Hamlet is told by his ghostly father to, "leave her [Gertrude)] to heaven," (I, v, 93). Despite this command, Hamlet accuses his mother of killing his father. James also left his mother to heaven. When Queen Elizabeth I sent Mary Queen of Scotts to the tower, James I did little for her. He threatened to cease trading with England if his mother was beheaded but he did not follow through on this threat. Relations between England and Scotland remained amiable.

Henry Brown states that Shakespeare's absence from London around the time he is believed to have written Hamlet might have been due to his being on an acting tour in Scotland. From this distance, Shakespeare would have been able to test the political waters and write Hamlet. Hamlet is not a perfect reflection of the life of James the first; however, a playwright could be sent to the tower if James, like Claudius were to jump from his seat during the play-within-a-play, and call for lights.

Shakespeare's son

Most scholars dismiss the idea that Hamlet is in any way connected with Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet Shakespeare

Hamnet Shakespeare

Hamnet Shakespeare was the only son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and the fraternal twin of Judith Shakespeare. He died at age 11 of unknown causes. There are several theories on the relationship, if any, between Hamnet and his father's later play Hamlet...

, who died at age eleven. Conventional wisdom holds that Hamlet is too obviously connected to legend, and the name Hamnet was quite popular at the time. However, Stephen Greenblatt

Stephen Greenblatt

Stephen Jay Greenblatt is a literary critic, theorist and scholar.Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term...

has argued that the coincidence of the names and Shakespeare's grief for the loss of his son may lie at the heart of the tragedy. He notes that the name of Hamnet Sadler, the Stratford neighbor after whom Hamnet was named, was often written as Hamlet Sadler and that, in the loose orthography of the time, the names were virtually interchangeable. Shakespeare himself spelled Sadler's first name as "Hamlett" in his will.

External links

Israel Gollancz's Hamlet in Iceland - a compilation of the five Icelandic Ambales Rimur at archive.org

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