How does the name Hamlet relate to Shakespeare?

Answer 1

He wrote the play Hamlet. You might think that the name was developed from his son's name- Hamnet, who died about five years before he wrote the play. But you'd be wrong. Shakespeare's son was named after his neighbour Hamnet Sadler, and his daughter, Hamnet's twin, was named for Hamnet Sadler's wife Judith Sadler. The character in the play was called Hamlet (or some variation on that) for three hundred and fifty years before Shakespeare got hold of it.

Thinking that Shakespeare named the character after his son is like thinking that he named the main character in King John after his father, or one of the main female characters in Henry VIII, Anne Bullen, after his wife.

Answer 2

The Ur-Hamlet is the name given to scholars to a hypothetical source for Shakespeare's Hamlet. The Ur-Hamlet is an older play, also called Hamlet, which is now lost (if it ever existed). Some scholars speculate that it may have been written by Thomas Kyd, in very much the same style as his Spanish Tragedy. Hamlet, as presented by Shakespeare, has many dramatic characteristics in common with the Spanish Tragedy.

Reasons for believing in the existence of the Ur-Hamlet are apparent references to Hamlet long before Shakespeare appears to have written it, questions as to the availability of the Belleforest source, and the existence of a German play called Die Brudermord, which reads a lot like we would expect a German translation of the Ur-Hamlet to read.

Answer 3

The "Ur-Hamlet" is the name given to a play on the story of Hamlet written before Shakespeare's and used by him as a source. Some people think the Ur-Hamlet was by Thomas Kyd. Some think that the German play Der Brudermord is a translation of the Ur-Hamlet. One of the reasons for believing that there was such a play is a record in Henslowe's diary of a play Hamlet being performed June 9, 1594, about five years before the Shakespeare play we know was apparently written. Nevertheless we have no copy of the script of the play (unless it is the same as Der Brudermord) so we cannot say much about it.

Answer 4

you could use it as context for the play hamlet and say how shakespeare drew on the works of authors before his time, while also creating an innovative work of his own!