The tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark often shortened to Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometimes between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play with 29, 551 words. Set in Denmark the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle Claudius who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother. Hamlet is considered among the most powerful and influential works of world literature with a story of capable of seemingly endless retelling and adpatation by others. It was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most performed topping the performance list of the Royal Shakespeare company and his predecessors in Strat ford Upon Avon since 1879. It has inspired many other writers from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and Iris Murdoch and has been described as the most world's most filmed story after Cinderella. The story of Shakespeare's Hamlet was derived from the legend of Amleth preserved by the 13 century chronicler Saxo Grammatricus in his Gesta Denorum as subsequently retold by the 16 century scholar Francois de Belle forest. Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-hamlet though some scholars believe Shakespeare wrote the Ur- Hamlet later revising it to create a revision of Hamlet that exists today. He almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor Richard Burbage the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. I'm the 400 years since it's inception the role has been performed by numerous highly acclaimed actors in each successive century.