
Written
1599–1601
First performed
1601 or 1602
First published
1603, in the First Quarto
Literary form
Play
Genres
Tragedy
Writing language
English
Author's country
England
Length
Five acts, 4,042 lines, approx. 29,000 words
Author
William Shakespeare
Play
Henry IV, Part 1
Play
Julius Caesar
Play
King Lear
Play
Macbeth
Play
Othello
Play
Romeo and Juliet
Poetry
Sonnets
Play
The Tempest
Hamlet
THE PLAY | THE TEXT | THE MOVIES
Notable lines and passages
First line
Who's there?
Passages
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
...to the manner born
...it is a custom
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
Murder most foul
The time is out of joint
The devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be
This above all: to thine own self be true
Frailty, thy name is woman!
Brevity is the soul of wit
What a piece of work is a man!
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil....
Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The play's the thing....
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action...to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
...Hoist with his own petar.
Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio
I must be cruel, only to be kind
Sweets to the sweet
A hit, a very palpable hit.
To die, to sleep;
To sleep; perchance to dream
The rest is silence.
Good night, sweet prince
Last line
Go bid the soldiers shoot.
THE PLAY | THE TEXT | THE MOVIES