HAMLETP R I N C E O F D E N M A R K

HISTORICAL CONTEXT & BACKGROUND

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE(1564-1616)

• Often regarded as the best

English playwright and poet in

history.

• He was the leading

shareholder and principal

playwright for the acting

company the “Chamberlain’s

Men.”

• Hamlet as well as Othello and

King Lear were written for the

Globe Theatre in London; one

of four Renaissance theatres

in the city.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Hamlet is believed to be written by Shakespeare and

performed in theatres by 1603 after the English

Reformation in the Elizabethan (Golden) Age of England.

The Common Anatomy of an Elizabethan Theatre. The best known Elizabethan theatre is theGlobe which was builtand occupied by Shakespeare’s acting company The Chamberlain’s Men.

ENGLISH REFORMATION

The Catholic King Henry VIII was married to

Catherine of Aragon but sought an annulment after

they failed to produce a male heir. The Pope

refused to annul the marriage and as a result the

King separated all of England from the Roman

Catholic Church.

Immediately after Catherine’s death, Henry

married Anne Boleyn in 1533. She gave birth to

Elizabeth who later on became the Queen of

England. Anne was beheaded by King Henry.

Henry VIII is famous for causing political and

religious unrest due to his wish to annul his

marriage. He is also infamous for beheading all of

his wives after they fail to give birth to boys.

ELIZABETHAN (GOLDEN) AGE

• Over 1 million people lived in London.

• Queens Elizabeth I reigned from 1558-1603.

• Elizabeth put a rest to the religious turmoil left by

her father by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement

in 1559.

• English literature, poetry, theatre and music

flourished. This time period is known as the Golden

Age of England.

• Shakespeare’s plays represented a movement

towards breaking free of previous styles of theatre

and entertainment spurred by the Renaissance’s

encouragement of new ideas and thinking.

ELIZABETHAN (GOLDEN) AGE C O N T ’ D

With the development of the English language as the

accepted vernacular in England, English became a symbol

of the nation and the Protestant national church.

Mary Queen of the Scots was Elizabeth’s cousin and an

important figure of the Elizabethan era.

The Spanish Armada which was a fleet that tried to

overthrow Queen Elizabeth was defeated by the English in

1588.

IMPORTANT EVENTS

1450: Printing Press

invented

1492: Columbus

discovers the New World

1510: Henlein

invents the pocket watch

1543: John Dee creates a wooden robot

1550: John Dee publishes Elements of Geometry in

English

1565: Conrad Gesner

invents the pencil

1568: Bottled Beer invented in

London

1569: Map projection is

invented

1582: Modern

Calendar created

IMPORTANT EVENTS C O N T ’ D

1583: Telescope invented

1588: Spanish Armada

defeated by the English

1591: Flush toilet invented

in England.

1590: The compound

microscope is invented.

1589: Knitting Machine invented

1593: Galileo invents Water

thermometer

1600: Gilbert publishes treatise on

electricity & Magnetism

1609: Galileo introduces

telescope into astronomy

THE STORY OF HAMLET

“The story of Hamlet in some form is at least seven

hundred years old. Hamlet appears first as Amlethus in

the Historia Danica, written by Saxo Grammaticus in the

twlefth century. The original source of the English play is

a French story told in the Histoires tragiques of Francois

de Belleforest, published in Paris in 1576. The outline of

Belleforest’s story follows:

‘In pre-Christian times there was a Danish Prince called Horvendile, who was married to Queen Geruth. Their son was named Hamlet. Prince Horvendile was murdered by his brother Fengon, 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 the truth by sending a harlot to tempt Hamlet, but Hamlet was forewarned. Fengon send one of his councilors to hide secretly behind the arras in the Queen’s chamber so that he might overhear Hamlet’s cnversation with his mother. Hamlet came into the chamber, pretending in his madness to be a cock, and beating with his arms upon the arras he felt the eavesdropper. He slew him with his sword, cut the body in pieces, boiled them, and fed them to the hogs.’”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M. H., eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New

York: W.W. Norton Company Inc., 1968. Print.

Burton, Raffel. Introduction. Hamlet. By William Shakespeare. 1601.

New Haven: Yale UP, 2003. xv-xxxi. Print.

Harrison, G. B. , ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York:

Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1968. Print.

Maxwell, Julie. “Counter-Reformation Versions of Saxo: A New

Source For Hamlet?” Renaissance Quarterly 57 (2004): 518-60

JSTOR. Web. 16 Feb. 2011