Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is not a wholly original story, but is the greatest retelling of the legend of Amleth, recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus four centuries before Shakespeare. Saxo's tale is a highly entertaining adventure in its own right and provides insights into the creative processes by which the old, pagan legend evolved to strike fire in the Christian age of Elizabethan theater. This accurate new translation of "The Revenge of Amleth" by Soren Filipski gives a complete selection of the Amleth legend, including Amleth's often-omitted adventures in Britain. Filipski also provides an historical introduction that traces Saxo's influence on Shakespeare's contemporaries, with exhaustive citations of every Elizabethan reference to earlier versions of "Hamlet." Also included is the full text of Francois de Belleforest's "Hystorie of Hamblet," an influential pre-Shakespearean adaptation of the same story.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet (c.1600-1601) has achieved iconic status as one of the most exciting and enigmatic of plays. It has been in almost constant production in Britain and throughout the world since it was first performed, fascinating generations of audiences and critics alike. Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Shakespeare's remarkable play offers: extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and performance of the text, from publication to the present annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism suggestions for further reading.

First published in 1977. This book ascertains what sources Shakespeare used for the plots of his plays and discusses the use he made of them; and secondly illustrates how his general reading is woven into the texture of his work. Few Elizabethan dramatists took such pains as Shakespeare in the collection of source-material. Frequently the sources were apparently incompatible, but Shakespeare's ability to combine a chronicle play, one or two prose chronicles, two poems and a pastoral romance without any sense of incongruity, was masterly. The plays are examined in approximately chronological order and Shakespeare's developing skill becomes evident.

David Bevington demonstrates that the staging, criticism, and editing of Hamlet go hand in hand over the centuries to such a remarkable extent that the history of Hamlet can be seen as a kind of paradigm for the cultural history of the English-speaking world.

Reproduction of the original: The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd