WS ABC HAMLET 2

Shakespeare in Denmark. Sculpture based on iconic portrait by Droeshout in the "First Folio."

Last time I dealt mainly with the sources and past productions of Hamlet. This time I wish to deal with the technical side of the play: no. of lines, quotations etc.

First of all, as a play, it is probably the most performed play since it was written - in c.1601-02, in English and in any other language and it is certainly the most quoted one of all of the Bard's works. The 1996 Revised Edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations devotes 71 pages to Shakespeare, and of these, EIGHT!!! pages (about one-ninth) are quotations from Hamlet.

Examples of Hamlet's best lines:
O that this too too solid flesh would melt
Frailty, thy name is woman!
This above all; to thine own self be true.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The time is out of joint.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
What a piece of work is a man!
The play's the thing!
The lady protests too much, methinks.
There's a divinity that shapes our ends.
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

And (listen for the drum-roll!) the most well-known quotation in all of Shakespeare, nay in all of the world's literature:
To be, or not to be; that is the question...

In addition, Hamletit is the longest play that WS wrote and includes (depending on the edition you read) 4,042 lines, nearly 300 lines more than 'longest play #2,' Coriolanus which has 3,752. In comparison, the shortest play, The Comedy of Errors has a mere 1787 lines, while my favourite, Macbeth,  contains just over half of the length of the Danish play, i.e. 2,349 lines.

In addition, Michael LoMonico in Shakespeare 101, says that Hamlet is the second bloodiest play after Titus Andronicus. Richard The Third comes in third, Julius Caesar fourth and Macbeth completes the list of the Top Five Bloody WS Plays.

                        The sad and untimely end of Ophelia

In addition, Hamlet offers no great roles for female roles, although Hamlet and Ophelia are one of the most famous pairs of lovers and also dysfunctional couples in this play. This play also contains no songs and no suicides (as in Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra) but there is a 'missing mother,' i.e. we do not read about Mrs. Polonius, Ophelia and Laertes' mother. In contrast, it does contain one of the most thrilling sword-fights of all of WS's plays when Hamlet and Laertes fight each other in the closing scene. 

Hamlet (Brannagh) and Laertes fighting it out to and at the bitter end.

This play is also somewhat bawdy in parts, (#5 in LoMonico's list) and for more details on this subject, you are advised to consult Shakespeare's Bawdy by Eric Partridge and Naughty Shakespeare by Michael Macrone. According to this last book, our Hamlet is in the top five, together with Falstaff, Iago, Much Ado About Nothing and The Merry Wives of Windsor. In this last play,in which Falstaff makes his own serious contribution to the ribald nature of this comedy.

Hamlet and Ophelia appear in court in front of King Claudius

More on Hamlet next time.
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