Ur-Hamlet
Encyclopedia
The Ur-Hamlet is the name given to a play mentioned as early as 1589, a decade before most scholars believe Shakespeare composed Hamlet
. Several surviving references indicate that such a play was well-known throughout the decade of the 1590s, some time before the first published texts of Shakespeare's play (1603, 1604).
The earliest such reference occurs in 1589 when Thomas Nashe
in his introduction to Robert Greene
's Menaphon implies the existence of an early Hamlet:
A 1594 performance record of Hamlet appears in Philip Henslowe
's diary and in 1596 Thomas Lodge
wrote of "the ghost which cried so miserably at the theatre, like an oyster-wife, Hamlet, revenge!"
Because Nashe apparently alludes to Thomas Kyd
in the same passage, and because of similarities between the Shakespearean Hamlet
and Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy
, it has sometimes been posited that Kyd is the author of the Ur-Hamlet. and that the play was never published and is now lost.
Other scholars believe that the play is an early version of Shakespeare's own play, and point to the fact that Shakespeare's version survives in three quite different early texts, Q1
(1603), Q2 (1604) and F (1623), suggesting the possibility that it was revised by the author over a period of many years. While the exact relationship of the short and apparently primitive text of Q1 to the later published texts is not resolved, Hardin Craig among others has suggested that it may represent an earlier draft of the play and hence would confirm that the "Ur-Hamlet" is in fact merely an earlier draft of Shakespeare's play. The mainstream view is that Q1 is simply a garbled unauthorised version of the text, which would explain the quick publication of the corrected version, Q2.
This view is held in some form or another by Harold Bloom
, Peter Alexander, and Andrew Cairncross
, who stated that "It may be assumed, until a new case can be shown to the contrary, that Shakespeare's Hamlet and no other is the play mentioned by Nashe in 1589 and Henslowe in 1594." Harold Jenkins, in his 1982 Arden edition, dismisses this assertion.
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...
. Several surviving references indicate that such a play was well-known throughout the decade of the 1590s, some time before the first published texts of Shakespeare's play (1603, 1604).
The earliest such reference occurs in 1589 when Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
in his introduction to Robert Greene
Robert Greene (16th century)
Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...
's Menaphon implies the existence of an early Hamlet:
- English SenecaSeneca the YoungerLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
read by candle-light yields many good sentences, as Blood is a begger, and so forth; and if you entreat him fair in a frosty morning, he will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls of tragical speeches.
A 1594 performance record of Hamlet appears in Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance London...
's diary and in 1596 Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge was an English dramatist and writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Early life and education:...
wrote of "the ghost which cried so miserably at the theatre, like an oyster-wife, Hamlet, revenge!"
Because Nashe apparently alludes to 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....
in the same passage, and because of similarities between the Shakespearean 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...
and 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...
, it has sometimes been posited that Kyd is the author of the Ur-Hamlet. and that the play was never published and is now lost.
Other scholars believe that the play is an early version of Shakespeare's own play, and point to the fact that Shakespeare's version survives in three quite different early texts, Q1
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...
(1603), Q2 (1604) and F (1623), suggesting the possibility that it was revised by the author over a period of many years. While the exact relationship of the short and apparently primitive text of Q1 to the later published texts is not resolved, Hardin Craig among others has suggested that it may represent an earlier draft of the play and hence would confirm that the "Ur-Hamlet" is in fact merely an earlier draft of Shakespeare's play. The mainstream view is that Q1 is simply a garbled unauthorised version of the text, which would explain the quick publication of the corrected version, Q2.
This view is held in some form or another by Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
, Peter Alexander, and Andrew Cairncross
Andrew Cairncross
Andrew Scott Cairncross, known as A.S. Cairncross, was a scholar of Shakespeare and the English literary renaissance. He is best known for his 1936 book, The Problem of Hamlet , which makes a number of controversial arguments about Hamlet -- arguing, for example, that the play was written around...
, who stated that "It may be assumed, until a new case can be shown to the contrary, that Shakespeare's Hamlet and no other is the play mentioned by Nashe in 1589 and Henslowe in 1594." Harold Jenkins, in his 1982 Arden edition, dismisses this assertion.