Global Hamlet Mid Week Movie – Chimes at Midnight

Today would have been Orson Welles’s 100th birthday, and what better way to mark the occasion than to watch the film he considered his best?

If you’re expecting the title to be “Citizen Kane”, you’re in for a surprise. Throughout the latter part of his life right up until his death in 1985 from a hear attack, the man who directed the film that is constantly listed as the greatest of all time…

“Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!—”

“Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!— The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword, Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th’ observed of all observers, quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason Like sweet bells jangled, out…

What is the First Folio?

 The First Folio is the name given to the original collection of Shakespeare’s plays, and it was first published in 1623.

The book was the work of two of Shakespeare’s colleagues in the King’s Men Acting Company, John Heminges and Henry Condel, and was dedicated to the patrons, brothers William and Herbert Montgomery, the 3rd Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Montgomery. History owes a vast debt…

“To thine own self be true…”

Many commentators have found wisdom in the Polonius’s parting words to his son, Laertes, while others have found them to be self-serving and even simplistic. What are your thoughts?

“And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption…

The Global Hamlet, the “People’s Edition” of Shakespeare’s greatest play, will be published next year, 2016, just in time for the four hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 1616.

We are inviting you to help contribute to this, the very first crowdsourced edition of a book anywhere.

Now is the time to get involved!

Share a quote, make a comment, draw a picture, or tell a story.

Where…

HAMLET, MY VALENTINE! Win your own personalized Shakespeare T-shirt!

On St. Valentine’s Day declare your love for the Bard and for Hamlet, and Hamlet and Bard will declare their love to you and send you a gift! Post your favorite romantic Shakespeare quote from Hamlet or from any other Shakespeare’s work in the comments of our Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/TheGlobalHamlet), along with a short explanation or story (“Brevity is the soul of wit”!) of what…

Love’s Labour’s Won? Shakespeare’s Lost Plays

Since his death in 1616, many plays, poems, and sonnets have been attributed to Shakespeare with varying degrees of success. Most have been proclaimed forgeries, while others have been considered to be collaborations between the Bard and other poets and playwrights, while still more have been put in the file marked “Undecided” and are treated with respected ambiguousness.

Despite the rash of…

TGH’S Mid Week Movie Review – Hamlet (1990)

Florentine director Franco Zefferilli had already directed a movie adaption of a Shakespeare work with his 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet before delivering this big budget version of Hamlet with Hollywood superstar Mel Gibson in 1990. The director was seemingly inspired to cast the Australian actor after seeing him play the suicidal L.A.P.D.…

A big welcome to all our new followers…

Are you a writer or an artist looking for a project worthy of your talents?

The Global Hamlet is looking for you to help contribute to the very first crowdsourced edition of Shakespeare’s greatest play.

If you would like a book that lists your name as a contributing author arriving through your door next year, then now is the time to get involved.

Share a quote, make a comment, draw a picture,…

I have of late, but wherefore I know not…

“I have of late, (but wherefore I know not) lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises;

and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition; that this goodly frame the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory;

this most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’er hanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire…”

Hamlet Act II, Scene ii

“There’s another. Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillities, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?

Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum!

This fellow might be in ’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his…

The Curious Case of Shakespeare’s Handwriting

One of the first things that any school child learns is that William Shakespeare is considered by most to be the greatest writer in the English language and perhaps even the greatest writer of all time. Indeed, it is even something of a cliché to mention Shakespeare’s name when discussions of great writers comes up. But what of the man’s writing itself?Are there any examples of writing in…

“‘Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it…”

“‘Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it…”

Ophelia Act I, Scene iii

The Global Hamlet – The Crowdsourcing of Literature

  Pierre Auguste Cot (17 February 1837 – 2 August 1883) was a French painter of the Academic Classicismschool. He died at the relatively young age (by modern standards) of 56, but left behind an impressive body of work. He was well known for his…

How Famous Authors have Used the Words Shakespeare Gave Them

No student of English would say that they don’t know who William Shakespeare is. His astounding ability to express the range of human emotions in easy yet intensely articulate verses is undoubtedly the greatest reason for his continuing popularity. Such has been the impact of the Bard of Avon on the English language. Shakespeare is…

Who was Richard Burbage?

  Richard Burbage was an actor, portrait artist, entrepreneur, and almost certainly the world’s very first Hamlet.

  Burbage is a name that is familiar to all serious admirers of Hamletand the Globe Theater, as he is credited with not only being the first actor to play the Prince of Denmark on stage, but also Richard III, Othello, and King Lear! In a time when there were very few dramatic roles…