"Hamlet", a tragedy by W. Shakespeare. This tragedy by W. Shakespeare was staged in 1601-1602, was first published in 1603 under the title “The tragic story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The writing of William Shakespeare. As it has been presented several times by His Majesty's actors in London, as well as at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford and other places. Obviously, it was a "pirated" version, partly recorded during the performances, partly composed of minor roles of those actors who sold the texts given to them by the Globe Theater to publishers. The full text appeared in 1604 in a second edition entitled: “The tragic story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The writing of William Shakespeare. Reprinted and enlarged almost twice as much as before, according to the original and complete manuscript.
The origins of the plot and the image of Hamlet as an eternal image. Hamlet had a real prototype - the Danish prince Amlet, who lived earlier than 826 (since the story of Amlet refers, according to sources, to pagan times, and this year can be considered the beginning of the Christianization of Denmark, when the first Christian mission came there; the official adoption of Christianity took place under Harald I in 960).
About 400 years later, he is mentioned in one of the Icelandic sagas by the skaldic poet Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241), the most famous of the Icelanders, according to the inhabitants of this northern island. Around the same time, the story of Amleth was told by the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (d. circa 1216) in book III of the Histories of the Danes (in Latin, circa 1200). In Saxo Grammar, Amlet is a strong-willed, cunning, cruel executor of righteous revenge. The coincidence of the motive of this revenge with the ancient myth of Orestes, who avenges the death of his father Agamemnon to his murderer Aegisthus, who seduced the mother of Orestes in order to seize the throne, is somewhat suspicious. But, on the other hand, such a story could well have taken place in reality, and the medieval Danish chronicler might not have known the ancient myth. Of course, Shakespeare did not read the Saxo Grammar; he learned the plot from later sources, which, however, go back to this text, according to scholars.
Another 400 years passed, and the story of the prince became known in France, where Saxo's History of the Danes Grammar was published (in Latin) in Paris for the first time in 1514. In the second half of the century, it attracted the attention of the French poet and historian François de Belforet (François de Belleforest, 1530-1583) and was retold by him in French and in his own way, becoming “The third story - about what trick Hamlet, the future king of Denmark, conceived to avenge his father Horvvendil, who was killed by his brother Fangon , and about other events from his life "in Belfort's collection of texts (similar compilations, translations, imitations), which were part of the five-volume collective work" Extraordinary stories extracted from many famous authors "(" Histoires prodigieuses extradites de plusieurs fameus auteurs ") . The story was translated into English with a number of changes under the title "The History of Hamlet", Shakespeare may have used the 1576 or 1582 editions). And in 1589, the English writer Thomas Nash already reports on “a bunch of Hamlets, scattering handfuls of tragic monologues” (Quoted from: Anikst A. A. “Hamlet” // Shakespeare W. Full. Collected Op.: In 10 vols. M., 1994. T. 3. S. 669). Then came the tragedy of Hamlet, attributed to Thomas Kidd. Its text has not been preserved, but it is known that it already contained the ghost of Hamlet's father, calling his son to revenge. Obviously, the theme of revenge was the main one in it. From this assumption follows the attribution of the lost play to the genre of "revenge tragedy", popular in England at that time, for the same reason experts have associated it with the name of Kid, the greatest master of the genre.
So, it took 400 years for the story of a real person to become the material of literature. For another 400 years, he gradually acquired the features of a popular literary hero. In 1601, Shakespeare, in his tragedy, raised Hamlet to the level of one of the most significant characters in world literature. But the idea of Hamlet as an eternal image was formed for another 400 years, right up to our time. There is an obvious 400-year cycle in the development of the image.
The 400-year cycle of the formation of the image of Hamlet as an eternal image of world literature does not fit into the general course of the world literary process with its "three-century arches". If we turn to other eternal images, we can note the emerging 400-year cyclicity in the images of Don Quixote, Don Juan, Faust and some others, and other cyclicalities in many other cases. Hence the conclusion: although eternal images develop cyclically, this cyclicality almost never coincides with the general cycles of the development of world literature. In other words, eternal images are not accidentally called eternal: they are not connected with the laws of the history of literature (in this sense, they have an ahistorical character).
But this does not mean that they are in no way connected with the history of literature, free from it. The pace of literary history is manifested in the interpretation of eternal images, which affects their functioning in culture.
If the ratio of cyclicities is applied to the image of Hamlet, we can conclude that it should be considered differently in relation to the "three-century arch" of the New Age (XVII-XIX centuries) and the "three-century arch" of the Modern Age (XX-XXII centuries).
It would be wrong to believe that the assignment of Hamlet to the eternal images is undeniable. In the 1930s, the “Literature Encyclopedia” published an article “Hamlet”, which was written by I. M. Nusinov, the author of well-known works on eternal (or, as he believed, “secular”) images (See: Nusinov I. M. "Century Images" (Moscow, 1937), His History of a Literary Hero (Moscow, 1958). So, it was I. M. Nusinov who in this article categorically denied the possibility of classifying Hamlet as an eternal image. He wrote: “G[amlet] is a synthetic image of the descending nobleman of the 16th century, who, having lost his social basis, doubted the age-old truth, but did not find a new one, because the new truth is the truth of the class that wrested from G[amlet] from -under the feet of his foundation. The onslaught of this new class compels them to look critically at the age-old feudal truth, at the truth of the Catholic Church, and to listen to the voices of Bruno, Montaigne, and Bacon. But the “kingdom of man”, to which Bacon calls, marks the end of the kingdom of the feudal lord. “Prince G[amlet]” turns away from the faith of J. Bruno, from the affirmation of the joy of Montaigne’s life, from the intoxication with the power of Bacon’s knowledge, from the creative sacrifice and effectiveness of the thought of the Renaissance and affirms the philosophy of lack of will, pessimistic cynicism, the triumph of the all-devouring worm, the thirst for escape from “ empty garden "of life into non-existence". Hence the conclusion of the scientist: “The image of H[amlet] is determined by its reality. Therefore, G[amlet] for his time was only a social image. It became a psychological type, an "eternal image", a philosophical category, "Hamletism" - for subsequent centuries. Other researchers even argued that the author of "G[amlet]" from the very beginning set himself the task of creating a "general human type", an "eternal image". This is true only in the sense that the class is often inclined to elevate its historical experience into an eternal norm, it perceives the crisis of its social life as a crisis of being. It then seems to the class that the non-descending aristocrat oscillates between the old feudal and the new bourgeois norms, between the dogmas of religions and the data of experience, between blind faith and critical thinking; an aristocrat who does not lose his social balance is ready to go into oblivion, if only not to know the catastrophes of descending the social ladder, and a person of all ages seeks to throw off the “burden of life”, to end the “trouble”, which is “so durable”. The peace of death beckons from the hopelessness of more than one “prince of Denmark”. For all "the living, such an end is worthy of hot desires." The drama of the class was portrayed by the author of "G[amlet]" as the drama of mankind. But, in essence, he gave not the eternal drama of mankind, not even the drama of his entire era, but only the drama of a certain class in a certain period of time. The drama of Hamlet, as has already been clarified, was absolutely alien to Shakespeare's contemporary thinkers, whose thinking was determined by the existence of the bourgeoisie. For them, as we have seen, thought did not paralyze action, but, directing, stimulated only greater activity. [...] The world and man are beautiful, but it is not given to him to be happy - such is the meaning of H[amlet's] complaints. Therefore, it is not given that life for the descending aristocracy has become a "mixture of poisonous vapors." From now on, it is not she, but the accumulating bourgeoisie who will cultivate the garden of life. The drama of G[amlet] is the drama of a class knocked out of its age-old nest. Woe to H[amlet] — woe to him who, at the ruins of the building created by his class, does not realize that buildings of this class can no longer be erected, does not have enough strength to join the ranks of the builders of a new class, and all the time passes from timid hope to a new to longing and despair for the lost old. There is no return to the past, there is not enough strength to join the new. [...] Here it is revealed to the end that H[amlet] is a class image, temporary, and not universal, eternal. A great deed can be accomplished by the forces of the young class. It is beyond the power of only G[amlet], he “gets confused, dodges, gets frightened, then moves forward, then retreats back” (Goethe), while the new class creates a new “connection of times”. Synthesizing the crisis of the English nobility at the junction of two social formations - feudal and capitalist - G[amlet] could subsequently acquire the meaning of a symbol for a number of social groups of various peoples, when they, also finding themselves at the junction of two social formations, could no longer continue to follow the path historically condemned class, nor start building a new social edifice. [...] The Hamlets come every time a class loses ground, when it lacks an effective determination to wrest power from an aging class, and when the best representatives of a dying or still weak young class, who have realized that the old is condemned, lack the strength to stand on the ground of the class that is going to replace them, because they are "lonely and fruitless." “Hamletism” is not an eternal property of the searching and doubting human spirit, but the attitude of the class from whose hands the historical sword has fallen. For him, thought is the thought of his impotence, and therefore "the blush of a strong will fades in him when he begins to think." The desire to see in Hamlet the eternal “lot of the living” is, in the apt words of Gervinus, “only the inability of the idealist-dreamers to endure reality”, which condemned them to Hamletic fruitless reflection.
This is definitely a concept. But, I think, the denial of the “eternal” in Hamlet rather testifies not to the temporality of the image, but to the temporality (connection with its own time) of the concept. It is no coincidence that the author speaks of "William Shakespeare", taking his name in quotation marks: he, developing the logic of his concept, believes that Shakespeare's plays were written by one of the English aristocrats. Only under this assumption does his conception have a right to exist at all, but if Shakespeare is a playwright and an actor at the Globe Theatre, it loses its main core. Cultural thesaurus, personal or collective, always marked incompleteness, fragmentation, relative inconsistency in comparison with the real development of culture. But fragments of reality are subjectively linked into a single picture, which seems logical. Thinking is thesaurus. In the concept of I. M. Nusinov, this was clearly manifested. We perceive his views in the same thesaurus way: something (for example, the assertion that Shakespeare did not conceive the image of Hamlet as eternal) is quite acceptable, something (first of all, the reduction of Hamlet's tragedy to the tragedy of the feudal class, over which bourgeoisie) seems simply naive.
In all other concepts, the same thesaurus limitations will be found. But it is in this form that eternal images exist in world culture.
Interpretations of the image of Hamlet. Hamlet is one of the most mysterious figures in world literature. For several centuries now, writers, critics, scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of this image, to answer the question of why Hamlet, having learned the truth about the murder of his father at the beginning of the tragedy, postpones revenge and at the end of the play kills King Claudius almost by accident. J. W. Goethe saw the reason for this paradox in the strength of the intellect and the weakness of the will of Hamlet. A similar point of view is developed by V. G. Belinsky, adding: "Hamlet's idea: weakness of the will, but only as a result of disintegration, and not by its nature." I. S. Turgenev in his article "Hamlet and Don Quixote" prefers the Spanish hidalgo, criticizing Hamlet for inactivity and fruitless reflection. On the contrary, the film director G. Kozintsev emphasized the active principle in Hamlet, saw in him a continuously acting hero. One of the most original points of view was expressed by the outstanding psychologist L. S. Vygotsky in The Psychology of Art (1925). Having a new understanding of Shakespeare's criticism in L. N. Tolstoy's article "On Shakespeare and Drama", Vygotsky suggested that Hamlet is not endowed with character, but is a function of the action of tragedy. Thus, the psychologist emphasized that Shakespeare is a representative of the old literature, which did not yet know character as a way of depicting a person in verbal art. L. E. Pinsky connected the image of Hamlet not with the development of the plot in the usual sense of the word, but with the main plot of the “great tragedies” - the discovery by the hero of the true face of the world, in which evil is more powerful than it was imagined by humanists. It is this ability to know the true face of the world that makes Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth tragic heroes. They are titans, surpassing the average viewer in intelligence, will, courage. But Hamlet is different from the other three protagonists of Shakespeare's tragedies. When Othello strangles Desdemona, King Lear decides to divide the state between his three daughters, and then gives the share of the faithful Cordelia to the deceitful Goneril and Regan, Macbeth kills Duncan, guided by the predictions of the witches, they are wrong, but the audience is not mistaken, because the action is built so that they could know the true state of things. This puts the average viewer above the titanic characters: the audience knows something they don't know. On the contrary, Hamlet knows less than the audience only in the first scenes of the tragedy. From the moment of his conversation with the Phantom, which is heard, apart from the participants, only by the spectators, there is nothing significant that Hamlet does not know, but there is something that the spectators do not know. Hamlet ends his famous monologue “To be or not to be? ”With the meaningless phrase “But enough”, leaving the audience without an answer to the most important question. In the finale, having asked Horatio to "tell everything" to the survivors, Hamlet utters a mysterious phrase: "Further - silence." He takes with him a certain secret that the viewer is not allowed to know. Hamlet's riddle, therefore, cannot be solved. Shakespeare found a special way to build the role of the protagonist: with such a construction, the viewer can never feel superior to the hero.
motive for revenge. The plot connects the play "Hamlet" with the tradition of the English "revenge tragedy". The genius of the playwright is manifested in the innovative interpretation of the problem of revenge - one of the important motives of the tragedy.
Hamlet makes a tragic discovery: having learned about the death of his father, the hasty marriage of his mother, having heard the story of the Phantom, he discovers the imperfection of the world (this is the plot of the tragedy, after which the action develops rapidly, Hamlet matures before our eyes, turning in a few months of plot time from a young student to 30 year old person). His next discovery: “time is dislocated”, evil, crimes, deceit, betrayal are the normal state of the world (“Denmark is a prison”), therefore, for example, King Claudius does not need to be a powerful person arguing with time (like Richard III in the chronicle of the same name ), on the contrary, time is on his side. And one more consequence of the first discovery: in order to correct the world, to defeat evil, Hamlet himself is forced to embark on the path of evil. From the further development of the plot it follows that he is directly or indirectly guilty of the death of Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Laertes, the king, although only this latter is dictated by the demand for revenge.
Revenge, as a form of restoring justice, was such only in the good old days, and now that evil has spread, it does not solve anything. To confirm this idea, Shakespeare poses the problem of revenge for the death of the father of three characters: Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras. Laertes acts without reasoning, sweeping away “right and wrong”, Fortinbras, on the contrary, completely refuses revenge, Hamlet puts the solution of this problem depending on the general idea of the world and its laws.
Other motives. The approach found in Shakespeare's development of the motive of revenge (personification, i.e., tying the motive to characters, and variability) is also implemented in other motives. Thus, the motive of evil is personified in King Claudius and presented in variations of involuntary evil (Hamlet, Gertrude, Ophelia), evil from vindictive feelings (Laertes), evil from servility (Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Osric), etc. The motive of love is personified in female images: Ophelia and Gertrude. The friendship motif is represented by Horatio (faithful friendship) and by Guildenstern and Rosencrantz (betrayal of friends). The motif of art, the world-theatre, is associated both with touring actors and with Hamlet, who appears insane, Claudius, who plays the role of the good uncle Hamlet, etc. The motif of death is embodied in the gravediggers, in the image of Yorick. These and other motives grow into a whole system, which is an important factor in the development of the plot of the tragedy.
Final interpretation. L. S. Vygotsky saw in the double assassination of the king (with a sword and poison) the completion of two different storylines developing through the image of Hamlet (this function of the plot). But there is another explanation as well. Hamlet acts as a fate that everyone has prepared for himself, preparing his death. The heroes of the tragedy die, ironically: Laertes - from the sword, which he smeared with poison, in order to kill Hamlet under the guise of a fair and safe duel; the king - from the same sword (according to his proposal, it should be real, unlike Hamlet's sword) and from the poison that the King had prepared in case Laertes could not inflict a mortal blow on Hamlet. Queen Gertrude drinks poison by mistake, as she mistakenly confided in a king who did evil in secret, while Hamlet makes all secret clear. Hamlet bequeaths the crown to Fortinbras, who refuses to avenge his father's death.
Philosophical sounding of tragedy. Hamlet has a philosophical mindset: he always moves from a particular case to the general laws of the universe. He views the family drama of his father's murder as a portrait of a world in which evil thrives. The frivolity of his mother, who so quickly forgot about her father and married Claudius, leads him to generalize: "O women, your name is treachery." The sight of Yorick's skull makes him think about the frailty of the earth. The whole role of Hamlet is based on making the secret clear. But with special compositional means, Shakespeare ensured that Hamlet himself remained an eternal mystery for viewers and researchers.
The main feature of the artistry of "Hamlet" is syntheticity (synthetic fusion of a number of storylines - the fate of heroes, the synthesis of the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the base, the general and the particular, the philosophical and the concrete, the mystical and everyday, the stage action and the word, the synthetic connection with the early and late works of Shakespeare).
Basic translations: Shakespeare V. Tragedy about Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (interlinear translation and comments) // Morozov M. M. Selected articles and translations. M. : Goslitizdat, 1954. S. 331-464; Shakespeare W. Hamlet. Selected translations: Collection / Comp. A. N. Gorbunov. M., 1985; Per. M. Lozinsky: Shakespeare V. Tragedy about Hamlet Prince of Denmark. M.; Leningrad: Academia, 1937; Per. B. L. Pasternak: Shakespeare W. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark // Shakespeare W. Full. coll. op. : V 10 t. M. : Alkonost; Labyrinth. 1994. Vol. 3.
In 1601, surrounded by a halo of extraordinary significance. It is seen as one of the deepest incarnations of life in all its complexity and at the same time mystery. The Scandinavian saga of the eighth-century Danish prince Amleth was first recorded by the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammatik in the 12th century, but Shakespeare is unlikely to have chosen a primary source for his play. Most likely, he borrowed the plot from the play of Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), who was famous as a master of revenge tragedies and who is the author of the pre-Shakespearean Hamlet.
Shakespeare reflected the tragedy of humanism in the contemporary world with the greatest depth. Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark is a wonderful image of a humanist who is faced with a world hostile to humanism. If there had been a detective genre in Shakespeare's time, then, of course, "Hamlet" could safely be called not only a tragedy, but also a detective story.
So, before us is the castle - Elsinore. Hamlet, a student at the University of Wittenberg, the son of a wise king and a tender mother, in love with a beautiful girl named Ophelia. And all of it is full of love for life, faith in man and the beauty of the universe. However, Hamlet's dreams of life and life itself are far from the same thing, and Hamlet soon becomes convinced of this. The mysterious death of his father, the king, the hasty, unworthy second marriage of his mother, Queen Gertrude, with the brother of the deceased husband, the insignificant and cunning Claudius, makes Hamlet look at life from a slightly different angle. Moreover, everyone in the castle is already talking about the fact that twice at midnight the watchmen saw the ghost of the recently deceased king at the wall. Horatio, Hamlet's friend from the university, does not believe these rumors, but at this moment the ghost appears again. Horatio sees this as a sign of great upheaval and considers it necessary to inform his friend the prince about everything.
Hamlet decides to spend the night at the castle wall, where the ghost is, to make sure that this is true. Exactly at midnight, the ghost of the father-king appears to Hamlet and reports that his death was not accidental. He was poisoned by his brother Claudius, treacherously pouring poison into the ear of the sleeping king. The ghost cries out for revenge, and Hamlet vows to punish Claudius severely. In order to collect the evidence necessary for the accusation of murder, Hamlet decides to pretend to be insane and asks his friends Marcellus and Horatio to keep silent about this.
However, Claudius is far from stupid. He does not believe in the madness of his nephew and instinctively feels in him his worst enemy and strives with all his might to penetrate his secret plan. On the side of Claudius is the father of Hamlet's beloved, Polonius. It is he who recommends Claudius to arrange a secret meeting for Hamlet and Ophelia in order to eavesdrop on their conversation. But Hamlet easily deciphers this plan and does not betray himself in any way. At the same time, a troupe of wandering actors arrives in Elsinore, whose appearance inspires Hamlet to use them in his fight against Claudius.
The Prince of Denmark, again, in the language of a detective, decides on a very original "investigative experiment." He asks the actors to perform a play called The Death of Gonzago, in which the king is killed by his own brother in order to take the throne by marrying a widow. Hamlet decides to watch Claudius' reaction during the performance. Claudius, as Hamlet expected, gave himself away entirely. Now the new king has no doubt that Hamlet is his worst enemy, who must be got rid of as soon as possible. He consults with Polonius and decides to send Hamlet to England. Allegedly, a sea voyage should benefit his confused mind. He cannot decide to kill the prince, as he is very popular with the Danish people. Filled with anger, Hamlet decides to kill Claudius, but finds him on his knees and repenting of his sins.
And Hamlet does not dare to kill, fearing that if he does away with the murderer of his father when he says a prayer, then by doing so he will open the way to heaven for Claudius. The poisoner doesn't deserve Heaven. Before leaving, Hamlet must meet his mother in her bedroom. Polonius also insisted on organizing this meeting. He hides behind a curtain in the queen's bedroom to eavesdrop on his son's conversation with his mother and report the results to Claudius. Hamlet kills Polonius. The death of his father drives his daughter Ophelia crazy, with whom Hamlet is in love. Meanwhile, discontent is growing in the country. People begin to suspect that something very bad is happening outside the walls of the royal castle. Ophelia's brother Laertes returns from France, convinced that it is Claudius who is guilty of the death of their father, and therefore of Ophelia's madness. But Claudius manages to convince him of his innocence in the murder and redirect Laertes' righteous anger towards Hamlet. Between Laertes and Hamlet almost took place a duel in the cemetery, near the freshly dug grave. Mad Ophelia committed suicide.
It is for her that the grave-diggers are preparing the last refuge. But Claudia is not satisfied with such a duel, because it is not known which of these two will win the fight. And the king must destroy Hamlet for sure. He persuades Laertes to postpone the fight, and then use a sword with a poisoned blade. Claudius himself prepares a drink with poison, which should be presented to the prince during the duel. Laertes slightly wounded Hamlet, but in battle they exchanged blades, and Hamlet pierces Polonius' son with his own poisoned blade. Thus, they are both doomed to die. Having learned about the last betrayal of Claudius, Hamlet, with his last strength, pierces him with a sword.
Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, also dies, having mistakenly drunk poison prepared for her son. At this moment, a joyful crowd appears near the gates of the castle, the Norwegian prince Fortinbras, now the only heir to the Danish throne and the English ambassadors. Hamlet died, but his death was not in vain. She exposed the shameless crimes of Claudius, the death of his father was avenged. And Horatio will tell the whole world the sad Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Square in front of the castle in Elsinore. Marcellus and Bernard, Danish officers, are on guard. They are later joined by Horatio, a learned friend of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. He had come to ascertain the story of a nighttime apparition of a ghost resembling that of a Danish king who had recently died. Horatio is inclined to consider this a fantasy. Midnight. And a formidable ghost in full military garb appears. Horatio is shocked, he tries to talk to him. Horatio, reflecting on what he saw, considers the appearance of a ghost a sign of "some unrest for the state." He decides to tell about the night vision to Prince Hamlet, who interrupted his studies at Wittenberg due to the sudden death of his father. Hamlet's grief is aggravated by the fact that soon after the death of his father, his mother married his brother. She, "not wearing out the shoes in which she walked behind the coffin," threw herself into the arms of an unworthy man, "a dense clot of meat." Hamlet's soul shuddered: “How tiresome, dull and unnecessary, / It seems to me, everything that is in the world! O abomination!
Horatio told Hamlet about the night ghost. Hamlet does not hesitate: “The spirit of Hamlet is in arms! The case is bad; / There's something lurking here. Hurry night! / Be patient, soul; evil will be exposed, / Even if it would be gone from the eyes into the underground darkness.
The ghost of Hamlet's father told of a terrible atrocity.
When the king was resting peacefully in the garden, his brother poured deadly henbane juice into his ear. "So in a dream from a fraternal hand I lost my life, crown and queen." The ghost asks Hamlet to avenge him. "Bye Bye. And remember me.” With these words, the ghost departs.
The world has turned upside down for Hamlet... He vows to avenge his father. He asks his friends to keep this meeting a secret and not be surprised by the strangeness of his behavior.
Meanwhile, the near nobleman of the king, Polonius, sends his son Laertes to study in Paris. He gives his fraternal instructions to his sister Ophelia, and we learn about the feeling of Hamlet, from which Laertes warns Ophelia: “He is in subjection at his birth; / He does not cut his own piece, / Like others; on his choice / The life and health of the entire state depend.
His words are confirmed by his father - Polonius. He forbids her to spend time with Hamlet. Ophelia tells her father that Prince Hamlet came to her and he seemed to be out of his mind. Taking her by the hand, "he let out a sigh so mournful and deep, / As if his whole chest was broken and life was extinguished." Polonius decides that Hamlet's strange behavior in the last days is due to the fact that he is "mad with love." He is going to tell the king about it.
The king, whose conscience is weighed down by the murder, is troubled by Hamlet's behavior. What lies behind it - madness? Or what else? He summons Rosencrantz and Guildestern, former friends of Hamlet, and asks them to find out his secret from the prince. For this, he promises "royal mercy." Polonius arrives and suggests that Hamlet's madness is caused by love. In support of his words, he shows Hamlet's letter, which he took from Ophelia. Polonius promises to send his daughter to the gallery, where Hamlet often walks, to ascertain his feelings.
Rosencrantz and Guildestern unsuccessfully try to find out the secret of Prince Hamlet. Hamlet realizes that they were sent by the king.
Hamlet learns that the actors have arrived, the tragedians of the capital, who he liked so much before, and the idea comes to him: to use the actors in order to make sure the king is guilty. He agrees with the actors that they will play a play about the death of Priam, and he will insert two or three verses of his composition there. The actors agree. Hamlet asks the first actor to read a monologue about the murder of Priam. The actor reads brilliantly. Hamlet is excited. Entrusting the actors to the cares of Polonius, he thinks alone. He must know exactly about the crime: "The spectacle is a noose to lasso the conscience of the king."
The King questions Rosencrantz and Guildestern about the progress of their mission. They confess that they were unable to find out anything: “He does not allow himself to be questioned / And with the cunning of madness he slips away ...”
They also report to the king that wandering actors have arrived, and Hamlet invites the king and queen to the performance.
Hamlet walks alone and meditates his famous monologue: "To be or not to be - that is the question..." Why do we cling to life so much? In which "the mockery of the century, the oppression of the strong, the mockery of the proud." And he himself answers his own question: “The fear of something after death - / An unknown land from which there is no return / To earthly wanderers” - confuses the will.
Polonius sends Ophelia to Hamlet. Hamlet quickly realizes that their conversation is being overheard and that Ophelia has come at the instigation of the king and father. And he plays the role of a madman, gives her advice to go to the monastery. Straightforward Ophelia is killed by Hamlet's speeches: “Oh, what a proud mind is smitten! Nobles, / Fighter, scientist - eyes, sword, tongue; / The color and hope of a joyful state, / A mint of grace, a mirror of taste, / An example of exemplary ones - fell, fell to the end! The king makes sure that love is not the cause of the prince's frustration. Hamlet asks Horatio to watch the king during the performance. The show starts. Hamlet comments on it as the play progresses. He accompanies the poisoning scene with the words: “He poisons him in the garden for the sake of his power. / His name is Gonzago Now you will see how the killer earns the love of Gonzago's wife.
During this scene, the king could not stand it. He got up. A commotion began. Polonius demanded that the game be stopped. Everyone leaves. That leaves Hamlet and Horatio. They are convinced of the crime of the king - he betrayed himself with his head.
Rosencrantz and Guildestern return. They explain how upset the king is and how perplexed the queen is about Hamlet's behavior. Hamlet takes the flute and invites Guildestern to play it. Guildestern refuses: "I don't know the art." Hamlet says with anger: “You see what a worthless thing you are making of me? You are ready to play on me, it seems to you that you know my frets ... "
Polonius calls Hamlet to his mother - the queen.
The king is tormented by fear, tormented by an unclean conscience. “Oh, my sin is vile, it stinks to heaven!” But he has already committed a crime, "his chest is blacker than death." He gets on his knees, trying to pray.
At this time, Hamlet passes - he goes to his mother's chambers. But he doesn't want to kill the despicable king while praying. "Back, my sword, find out the girth more terrible."
Polonius hides behind the carpet in the queen's chambers to eavesdrop on Hamlet's conversation with his mother.
Hamlet is full of indignation. The pain that torments his heart makes his tongue bold. The queen is frightened and screams. Polonius finds himself behind the carpet, Hamlet, shouting "Rat, rat", pierces him with a sword, thinking that this is the king. The queen begs Hamlet for mercy: “You directed your eyes straight into my soul, / And I see so many black spots in it, / That nothing can bring them out ...”
A ghost appears... He demands to spare the queen.
The Queen does not see or hear the ghost, it seems to her that Hamlet is talking to the void. He looks like a madman.
The queen tells the king that in a fit of madness, Hamlet killed Polonius. "He's crying about what he's done." The king decides to immediately send Hamlet to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildestern, who will be given a secret letter to the Briton about the killing of Hamlet. He decides to secretly bury Polonius to avoid rumors.
Hamlet and his traitorous friends rush to the ship. They meet armed soldiers. Hamlet asks them whose army and where they are going. It turns out that this is the Norwegian army, which is going to fight with Poland for a piece of land, which is a pity to rent for “five ducats”. Hamlet is amazed that people cannot "settle the dispute about this trifle."
This case for him is an occasion for deep reasoning about what torments him, and what torments him is his own indecision. Prince Fortinbras "for the sake of whim and absurd fame" sends twenty thousand to death, "as to bed", because his honor is offended. “So how am I,” exclaims Hamlet, “I, whose father is killed, / whose mother is in disgrace,” and I live, repeating, “this is how it must be done.” "O my thought, from now on you must be bloody, or the price of dust is yours."
Having learned about the death of his father, secretly, Laertes returns from Paris. Another misfortune awaits him: Ophelia, under the burden of grief - the death of her father at the hands of Hamlet - went crazy. Laertes wants revenge. Armed, he bursts into the chambers of the king. The king calls Hamlet the culprit of all the misfortunes of Laertes. At this time, the messenger brings the king a letter in which Hamlet announces his return. The king is at a loss, he understands that something has happened. But then a new vile plan ripens in him, in which he involves the quick-tempered, narrow-minded Laertes.
He proposes to arrange a duel between Laertes and Hamlet. And in order for the murder to take place for sure, the end of Laertes' sword should be smeared with deadly poison. Laertes agrees.
The queen sadly announces the death of Ophelia. She "tried to hang her wreaths on the branches, the treacherous bough broke, she fell into a sobbing stream."
Two gravediggers are digging a grave. And they throw jokes around.
Hamlet and Horatio appear. Hamlet talks about the futility of all living things. “Alexander (Macedonsky. - E. Sh.) died, Alexander was buried, Alexander turns to dust; dust is earth; clay is made from the earth; and why can't they plug a beer barrel with this clay into which he has turned?
The funeral procession is approaching. King, queen, Laertes, court. Bury Ophelia. Laertes jumps into the grave and asks to be buried with his sister, Hamlet cannot stand a false note. They grapple with Laertes. “I loved her; forty thousand brothers / with all the multitude of their love would not be equal to me, ”- in these famous words of Hamlet there is a genuine, deep feeling.
The king separates them. He is not satisfied with an unpredictable duel. He reminds Laertes: “Be patient and remember yesterday; / We will move the matter to a quick end.
Horatio and Hamlet are alone. Hamlet tells Horatio that he managed to read the king's letter. It contained a request that Hamlet be executed immediately. Providence protected the prince, and, using his father's seal, he replaced the letter in which he wrote: "The bearers should immediately be killed." And with this message, Rosencrantz and Guildestern sail towards their doom. Robbers attacked the ship, Hamlet was captured and was taken to Denmark. Now he is ready for revenge.
Osric appears - an approximate king - and reports that the king bet on a bet that Hamlet will defeat Laertes in a duel. Hamlet agrees to a duel, but his heart is heavy, it anticipates a trap.
Before the fight, he apologizes to Laertes: "My act, which offended your honor, nature, feeling, / - I declare this, was insane."
The king prepared another trap for fidelity - he placed a goblet with poisoned wine to give it to Hamlet when he was thirsty. Laertes wounds Hamlet, they exchange rapiers, Hamlet wounds Laertes. The Queen drinks poisoned wine for Hamlet's victory. The king failed to stop her. The queen dies, but manages to say: “Oh, my Hamlet, drink! I got poisoned." Laertes confesses his betrayal to Hamlet: "The king, the king is guilty..."
Hamlet strikes the king with a poisoned blade, and dies himself. Horatio wants to finish the poisoned wine in order to follow the prince. But the dying Hamlet asks: "Breathe in the harsh world, so that my / Tell the story." Horatio informs Fortinbras and the English ambassadors of the tragedy.
Fortinbras gives the order: "Let Hamlet be raised to the platform, like a warrior ..."
retold
This story was first recorded by the chronicler Saxo Grammatik in 1200 in Latin. During the Renaissance, the French writer Belforet retold it with significant changes in his Tragic Stories (1576). One of Shakespeare's predecessors, apparently Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), using the Belforet plot, wrote the tragedy Hamlet, which was played on the stage in 1589 and 1594. Its text, unfortunately, has not been preserved. In creating his tragedy, Shakespeare used Kid's play.
Most of Shakespeare's plays are characterized by writing dating problems. Hamlet is no exception:
- · In 1598, Francis Meres published a list of Shakespeare's works. There is no Hamlet in it. Therefore, the tragedy was created after 1598.
- On July 26, 1602, the publisher Roberts, associated with the Shakespeare group, registered in the register of the House of Booksellers, where all the books intended for publication were registered, “The book called The Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, in the form in which it was recently performed by the servants of the Lord Chamberlain ". Therefore, the tragedy was written before the middle of 1602.
- Finally, among the papers of Shakespeare's contemporary Gabriel Harvey, a sheet was found with an inscription made between 1598-1601, where Harvey mentions Shakespeare's tragedy in the following context: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
According to E.-C. Chambers, "Hamlet" was created and first staged on stage in 1600-1601. This dating of the play is the most generally accepted.
1603 quarto (Q1);
1604 quarto (Q2);
Quarto of 1611 (Q3) -- reprint of text from 1604;
After Shakespeare's death, Hamlet was published in his first collected works -
Folio 1623 (F1);
Also noteworthy:
1622 quarto (Q4), approximate date;
1637 quarto (Q5) -- like Q3, a reprint of the 1604 text.
Accordingly, three editions are of interest to textual critics: Q1, Q2 and F1. Q2 and F1 are mostly the same, while the 1603 edition is half the size of the second quarto.
Text F1 basically corresponds to text Q2. The main difference between these two benign texts is that the folio contains those lines that are missing in the quarto, but the 230 lines that are in the 1604 quarto are missing from the folio. Five lines, apparently, were simply omitted due to an oversight compositor, while the rest of the cuts, that is, 225 lines, according to J. Dover Wilson, indicate that the text of the play was cut for presentation on the stage, and these cuts were made by Shakespeare himself. In any case, as he writes, "Shakespeare himself could hardly have treated his own poetry more carefully." Be that as it may, even this reduction of more than two hundred lines from a total of almost four thousand lines of text is insignificant. It does not cause any damage to the plot, and only in one case the ideological side of the play suffers from this reduction, for the monologue turned out to be released (“How everything around me exposes ...”), in which Hamlet speaks of the appointment of a person, arguing the need to use reason not only for reflections on life, but also in order to make decisions and act.
According to modern scholars, the F1 texts are close to Shakespeare's manuscript. Even the abbreviations in the folio do not allow us to consider that we have a stage version. Omissions in the text only slightly reduce the play, and in this form, as in the quarto of 1604, it was too large for the performance. As you know, a performance in a Shakespearean theater lasted two to two and a half hours. If you quickly read aloud only one text Q2 or F1 in the original, then it will take longer. Therefore, it is assumed that on the stage of Shakespeare's theater "Hamlet" was hardly played in its entirety in the form in which it is given in the second quarto or in the folio.
The text that is printed in modern editions of Hamlet is a summary text that reproduces everything that is given in Q2 and F1. In other words, the reader of our time has before him a much more complete text than the one by which Shakespeare's contemporaries got acquainted with Hamlet. They read at best one of two editions - either the second quarto or the folio, or they heard an abridged text from the stage.
The modern reader is in a much better position. He has access to a text containing everything written by Shakespeare about the history of the Danish prince. The only thing that science cannot tell the reader is the exact form in which the play was performed on the stage of Shakespeare's theatre.
The division of the text of a play into acts and scenes does not belong to Shakespeare. Both lifetime quartos, 1603 and 1604, do not contain any divisions at all. This was due to the practice of the English theater of the late 16th-early 17th century, when the performance went on continuously.
The first attempt to divide the action into parts was made in the folio of 1623. At this time, the custom had already arisen, if not in the practice of the theater, then when printing plays, to divide them into five acts, according to the dramatic theory of classicism. This was strongly introduced by Shakespeare's contemporary Ben Jonson. The publishers of the 1623 Folio are inconsistent in this respect. In some plays they made a complete division into acts and scenes, in others a partial division, and in others they left everything without any division into separate parts. In Hamlet, as printed in the folio, the division was made only before the beginning of the second act. The rest of the text goes without indications of acts and scenes.
For the first time, the entire text of Hamlet was divided into acts 60 years after Shakespeare's death in the so-called "actor's quarto" of Hamlet in 1676. The division of tragedies into five acts accepted in modern editions, followed by the division of acts into separate scenes, was established by the editor of Shakespeare's works N. Rowe in his edition of 1709.
Thus, although we retain the division of the text of Hamlet into acts and scenes that has become traditional, we must remember that it does not belong to Shakespeare and was not used in staging the tragedy, as it was during the author's lifetime on the stage of his theater.
In the era of online games and movies, few people read books. But bright shots will leave the memory in a few minutes, but classical literature, which has been read for centuries, is remembered forever. It is irrational to deprive yourself of the opportunity to enjoy the immortal creations of geniuses, because they carry not only but also answers to many questions that have not lost their sharpness after hundreds of years. Such diamonds of world literature include Hamlet, a brief retelling of which awaits you below.
About Shakespeare. "Hamlet": the history of creation
The genius of literature and theater was born in 1564, baptized on April 26. But the exact date of birth is not known. The biography of the amazing writer is overgrown with many myths and conjectures. Perhaps this is due to the lack of accurate knowledge and its replacement by speculation.
It is known that little William grew up in a wealthy family. From a young age, he attended school, but could not finish it due to financial difficulties. Soon there will be a move to London, where Shakespeare will create Hamlet. The retelling of the tragedy is intended to encourage schoolchildren, students, people who love literature to read it in its entirety or go to the performance of the same name.
The tragedy was created on the basis of a "wandering" plot about the Danish prince Amlet, whose uncle killed his father in order to take over the state. Critics found the origins of the plot in the Danish annals of Saxo the Grammar, dated around the 12th century. During the development of theatrical art, an unknown author creates a drama based on this plot, borrowing it from the French writer Francois de Bolfort. Most likely, it was in the theater that Shakespeare recognized this story and created the tragedy Hamlet (see a brief retelling below).
First act
A brief retelling of "Hamlet" by acts will give an idea of the plot of the tragedy.
The act begins with a conversation between two officers, Bernardo and Marcellus, that they saw a ghost at night, which is very similar to the late king. After the conversation, they really see a ghost. The soldiers try to speak to him, but the spirit does not answer them.
Further, the reader sees the present king, Claudius, and Hamlet, the son of the deceased king. Claudius says that he married Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. Upon learning of this, Hamlet is very upset. He recalls what a worthy owner of the royal throne his father was, and how his parents loved each other. Only a month had passed since his death, and his mother got married. The prince's friend, Horatio, tells him that he saw a ghost that looks insanely like his father. Hamlet decides to go on night duty with a friend to see everything with his own eyes.
The brother of Hamlet's bride Ophelia, Laertes, leaves and says goodbye to his sister.
Hamlet sees a ghost on the duty platform. This is the spirit of his dead father. He informs his son that he died not from a snake bite, but from the treachery of his brother, who took his throne. Claudius poured henbane juice into his brother's ears, which poisoned and instantly killed him. The father asks for revenge for his murder. Later, Hamlet gives a brief retelling of what he heard to his friend Horatio.
Second act
Polonius is talking to his daughter Ophelia. She is frightened because she saw Hamlet. He had a very strange appearance, and his behavior spoke of a strong turmoil of the spirit. The news of Hamlet's madness spreads throughout the kingdom. Polonius is talking to Hamlet and notices that, despite the seeming madness, the prince's conversations are very logical and consistent.
Hamlet is visited by his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They tell the prince that a very talented acting corpse has arrived in the city. Hamlet asks them to tell everyone that he has lost his mind. Polonius joins them and also reports on the actors.
Third act
Claudius asks Guildenstern if he knows the reason for Hamlet's madness.
Together with the queen and Polonius, they decide to set up a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia in order to understand if he is going crazy because of love for her.
In this act, Hamlet pronounces his brilliant monologue "To be or not to be." The retelling will not convey the whole essence of the monologue, we recommend reading it yourself.
The prince is negotiating something with the actors.
The show starts. The actors portray the king and queen. Hamlet asked to play the play, a very brief retelling of recent events to the actors allowed them to show on the stage the circumstances of the fatal death of Hamlet's father. The king falls asleep in the garden, is poisoned, and the culprit wins the queen's trust. Claudius cannot stand such a spectacle and orders the show to be stopped. They leave with the queen.
Guildenstern conveys to Hamlet his mother's request to speak to her.
Claudius informs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he wants to send the prince to England.
Polonius hides behind the curtains in Gertrude's room and waits for Hamlet. During their conversation, the spirit of his father appears to the prince and asks him not to horrify his mother with his behavior, but to focus on revenge.
Hamlet strikes the heavy curtains with his sword and accidentally kills Polonius. He reveals to his mother a terrible secret about the death of his father.
Fourth act
The fourth act of the tragedy is full of tragic events. More and more, it seems to others, Prince Hamlet (a brief retelling of Act 4 will give a more accurate explanation of his actions).
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ask Hamlet where Polonius' body is. The prince does not tell them, accusing the courtiers of seeking only the privileges and favors of the king.
Ophelia is brought to the queen. The girl went crazy from the experience. Laertes secretly returned. He, with a group of people supporting him, broke the guards and is striving for the castle.
Horatio is brought a letter from Hamlet, which says that the ship on which he sailed was captured by pirates. The prince is their prisoner.
The king tells Laertes, who seeks to avenge who is responsible for his death, hoping that Laertes will kill Hamlet.
The news is brought to the Queen that Ophelia has died. She drowned in the river.
Fifth act
A conversation between two gravediggers is described. They consider Ophelia suicidal and condemn her.
At Ophelia's funeral, Laertes throws himself into a pit. Hamlet also jumps there, sincerely suffering from the death of his former lover.
After Laertes and Hamlet go to a duel. They hurt each other. The queen takes the chalice intended for Hamlet from Claudius and drinks. The cup is poisoned, Gertrude dies. The weapon that Claudius prepared is also poisoned. Both Hamlet and Laertes already feel the effect of the poison. Hamlet kills Claudius with the same sword. Horatio reaches for the poisoned glass, but Hamlet asks him to stop in order to reveal all the secrets and clear his name. Fortinbras learns the truth and orders Hamlet to be buried with honors.
Why read a short retelling of the story "Hamlet"?
This question often worries modern schoolchildren. Let's start with a question. It is not quite correctly set, since "Hamlet" is not a story, its genre is tragedy.
Its main theme is the theme of revenge. It may seem irrelevant, but its essence is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, many sub-themes are intertwined in Hamlet: loyalty, love, friendship, honor and duty. It is difficult to find a person who remains indifferent after reading the tragedy. Another reason to read this immortal work is Hamlet's monologue. "To be or not to be" has been said thousands of times, here are questions and answers that have not lost their sharpness after almost five centuries. Unfortunately, a brief retelling will not convey the entire emotional coloring of the work. Shakespeare created Hamlet on the basis of legends, but his tragedy outgrew the sources and became a world masterpiece.
