Hamlet and Horatio’s Question

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the most varied and complex of Shakespeares plays, seems to have been a hit. It travelled far from the boards of the Globe. Two different printed versions soon appeared, and English players took the play to Germany. Hamlet is revived more often than any other play, re appearing on the stages and in the literatures of the world. Generations have read, performed, watched and quoted from Hamlet. Indeed the play has become so familiar in the Englishspeaking world that its reappearances in later literature are often unserious, as for example in Mr Wopsles comically inept performance in Great Expectations. Few hermits or confessors will pick up this book, but many contemporary readers are able to say that some of their most pleasant and vivid learning about the possibilities of human life has come to them through their experience of Shakespeare’s plays.