First Quarto And Saxo Grammaticus Historiae Judacae

My aim in this essay is to make a comparison between Shakespeare’s texts (First Quarto, Second Quarto and First Folio) and Saxo Grammaticus Historiae Danicae, so that we can see which are the similitudes and differences of the events and the characters between those versions of the story of Hamlet by Shakespeare.

First of all, we could say that Shakespeare published the first edition of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in 1603, the First Quarto, which was taken from an unauthorized text, Historiae Danicae (or also called Gesta Danorum) by Saxo Grammaticus, written between 1185 and 1222¹. This First Quarto was considered a ‘bad’ quarto, printed from a manuscript which was thought to be of a memorial reconstruction. Although this First Quarto was considered

For example, instead of Hamlet, the name would be Amleth; instead of King Hamlet, Horwendill; instead of Gertrude, Gerutha; and instead of Claudius, Feng. Another important thing to pay attention, is to the structure of those versions: First and Second Quarto and the First Folio are written in dialogue, while Amleth, Prince of Denmark, by Saxo Grammaticus, is written in prose. We could also say that they have one important similitude in common, they are all

So, when Feng noticed that he was pretended to be insane, but he was not, he sent him to England and told the king by letter that he must kill Amleth. This passage is explained in Hamlet, The Arden Shakespeare: “The King’s letter to the King of England, which contains instructions that Amleth be killed, is cut in rescribe it and sign it with the forged signature of Fengon”⁵. However, in the versions of Shakespeare, Hamlet was sent to England accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were holding a letter which said that Hamlet must be killed, but he saw and changed it, so that the people who were going to be killed were both of them, Rosencrantz and