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Ur-Hamlet
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The Ur-Hamlet (the German prefix Ur- means "original") is a play by an unknown author, thought to be either Thomas Kyd or William Shakespeare, dated by scholars to the second half of 1587. No copy of the play survives today. The play was staged in London, more specifically at The Theatre in Shoreditch as recalled by Elizabethan author Thomas Lodge. It includes a character named Hamlet; the only other known character from the play is a ghost who, according to Thomas Lodge in his 1596 publication Wits Misery and the Worlds Madnesse, cries "Hamlet, revenge!"
Book · Open Library
- Author
- William Shakespeare
- First published
- 1908
- Editions
- 2
- Subjects
- Drama, Kings and rulers, Death, Princes, Fathers, Revenge, Murder victims' families, Succession
via Open Library
~6 min read
Article
5 sectionsContents
- Related writings
- Authorship theories
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
The Ur-Hamlet (the German prefix Ur- means "original") is a play by an unknown author, thought to be either Thomas Kyd or William Shakespeare, dated by scholars to the second half of 1587. No copy of the play survives today. The play was staged in London, more specifically at The Theatre in Shoreditch as recalled by Elizabethan author Thomas Lodge. It includes a character named Hamlet; the only other known character from the play is a ghost who, according to Thomas Lodge in his 1596 publication Wits Misery and the Worlds Madnesse, cries "Hamlet, revenge!"
== Related writings == What relation the Ur-Hamlet bears to Shakespeare's more commonly known play Hamlet, written sometime between 1599 and 1601, is unclear: it may contain events supposed to have occurred before Shakespeare's tragedy or it may be an early version of that play; the First Quarto in particular is thought perhaps to have been influenced by the Ur-Hamlet.