child gertrude 
The Ur - Hamlet ( the German prefix " Ur -" means " primordial ") is a play by an unknown author , thought to be either Thomas Kyd , an English dramatist or the more well known English playwright , ___MASK75___ . No copy of the play , dated by scholars to the second half of 1587 , survives today . The play is known to have been staged in London , more specifically at The Burbages Shoreditch Playhouse as recalled by Elizabethan author Thomas Lodge . The play is known to have a character named Hamlet ; the only other known character from the play is a ghost who cries , " Hamlet , revenge !" ___MASK6___ ( 28 August 1749  22 March 1832 ) was a German writer and statesman . His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles ; prose and verse dramas ; memoirs ; an autobiography ; literary and aesthetic criticism ; treatises on botany , anatomy , and colour ; and four novels . In addition , numerous literary and scientific fragments , more than 10 , 000 letters , and nearly 3 , 000 drawings by him exist . Richard Burbage ( 6 January 1567  12 March 1619 ) is considered the first great ___MASK94___ of English theatre . He is one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre of his time . In addition to being a stage ___MASK94___ he was also a theatre owner , entrepreneur and painter . He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage . They were both actors in drama . Burbage was a business associate and friend to ___MASK75___ . Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication , particularly the human ability to do so , and a language is any specific example of such a system . The scientific study of language is called linguistics . Questions concerning the philosophy of language , such as whether words can represent experience , have been debated since Gorgias and ___MASK1___ in Ancient Greece . Thinkers such as Rousseau have argued that language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from rational and logical thought . 20th - century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that philosophy is really the study of language . Major figures in linguistics include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky . Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Europe . The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries , it is south - west of Sweden and south of Norway , and bordered to the south by Germany . The Kingdom of Denmark is the sovereign state that comprises Denmark proper and two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean : the Faroe Islands and Greenland . Denmark has a total area of , and a population of 5 . 7 million . The country consists of a peninsula , Jutland , and an archipelago of 443 named islands , with the largest being Zealand and Funen . The islands are characterised by flat , arable land and sandy coasts , low elevation and a temperate climate . Saxo Grammaticus ( 1150  1220 ), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus , was a Danish historian , theologian and author . He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon , Archbishop of Lund , the main advisor to ___MASK67___ . He is the author of the first full history of Denmark . ___MASK10___ Augustine Aloysius Joyce ( 2 February 1882  13 January 1941 ) was an Irish novelist , short story writer , and poet . He contributed to the modernist avant - garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century . Norway (; Norwegian : ( Bokmål ) or ( Nynorsk ); Sami : " Norgga "), officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a sovereign and unitary monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula plus the island Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard . The Antarctic ___MASK59___ I Island and the sub - Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom . Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land . Until 1814 , the Kingdom included the Faroe Islands ( since 1035 ), Greenland ( 1261 ), and Iceland ( 1262 ). It also included Shetland and Orkney until 1468 . It also included the following provinces , now in Sweden : Jämtland , Härjedalen and Bohuslän . ___MASK26___ is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare ' s tragedy " Hamlet ". He is the Prince of Denmark , nephew to the usurping Claudius , and son of King Hamlet , the previous King of Denmark . At the beginning of the play , he struggles with whether , and how , to avenge the murder of his father , and struggles with his own sanity along the way . By the end of the tragedy , Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius , Laertes , Claudius , and two acquaintances of his from the University of Wittenberg Rosencrantz and Guildenstern . He is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia ( drowning ) and of his mother Gertrude ( poisoned by Claudius by mistake ). The Tragedy of Hamlet , Prince of Denmark , often shortened to Hamlet , is a tragedy written by ___MASK75___ at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602 . Set in the Kingdom of Denmark , the play dramatises the revenge ___MASK26___ is called to wreak upon his uncle , Claudius , by the ghost of Hamlet ' s father , King Hamlet . Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne , also marrying his deceased brother ' s widow . " Hamlet " is Shakespeare ' s longest play , and is ranked among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature , with a story capable of " seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others ". The play likely 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 its predecessors in Stratford - 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 world ' s most filmed story after " Cinderella "". The story of Shakespeare ' s " Hamlet " was derived from the legend of Amleth , preserved by 13th - century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his " Gesta Danorum ", as subsequently retold by 16th - century scholar François de Belleforest . Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier ( hypothetical ) Elizabethan play known today as the " Ur - Hamlet ", though some scholars believe he himself wrote the " Ur - Hamlet ", later revising it to create the version of " Hamlet " we now have . He almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor , Richard Burbage , the leading tragedian of Shakespeare ' s time . In the 400 years since its inception , the role has been performed by numerous highly acclaimed actors in each successive century . English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global " lingua franca ". Named after the Angles , one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England , it ultimately derives its name from the Anglia ( Angeln ) peninsula in the Baltic Sea . It is most closely related to the Frisian languages , although its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages in the early medieval period , and later by Romance languages , particularly French . English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states . It is the most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom , the United States , Canada , Australia , Ireland , and New Zealand , and is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean , Africa , and South ___MASK22___ . It is the third most common native language in the world , after Mandarin and Spanish . It is the most widely learned second language and an official language of the United Nations , of the European Union , and of many other world and regional international organisations . It is the most widely spoken Germanic language , accounting for at least 70 % of speakers of this Indo - European branch . In ___MASK75___ ' s play Hamlet , Gertrude is Hamlet ' s mother and Queen of Denmark . Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent , since he resents her marrying her husband ' s brother Claudius after he murdered the King ( young Hamlet ' s father , King Hamlet ) . Gertrude reveals no guilt in her marriage with Claudius after the recent murder of her husband , and Hamlet begins to show signs of jealousy towards Claudius . According to Hamlet , she scarcely mourned her husband ' s death before marrying Claudius . Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia . Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north , the Atlantic Ocean to the west , and the Mediterranean Sea to the south . To the east and southeast , Europe is generally considered as separated from ___MASK22___ by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian and Black Seas , and the waterways of the Turkish Straits . Yet the non - oceanic borders of Europe  a concept dating back to classical antiquity  are arbitrary . The primarily physiographic term " continent " as applied to Europe also incorporates cultural and political elements whose discontinuities are not always reflected by the continent ' s current overland boundaries . ___MASK75___ ( 26 April 1564 ( baptised )  23 April 1616 ) was an English : poet , : playwright , and actor , widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world ' s pre - eminent dramatist . He is often called England ' s national poet , and the " Bard of Avon ". His extant works , including collaborations , consist of approximately 38 plays , 154 sonnets , two long narrative poems , and a few other verses , some of uncertain authorship . His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright . Dame Jean ___MASK25___ Murdoch ( 15 July 1919  8 February 1999 ) was a British novelist and philosopher , best known for her novels about good and evil , sexual relationships , morality , and the power of the unconscious . Her first published novel , " Under the Net ", was selected in 1998 as one of Modern Library ' s 100 best English - language novels of the 20th century . In 1987 , she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire . Her books include " The Bell " ( 1958 ), " A Severed Head " ( 1961 ), " The Red and the Green " ( 1965 ), " The Nice and the Good " ( 1968 ), " The Black Prince " ( 1973 ), " Henry and Cato " ( 1976 ), " The Sea , the Sea " ( 1978 , Booker Prize ), " The Philosopher  s Pupil " ( 1983 ), " The Good Apprentice " ( 1985 ), " The Book and the Brotherhood " ( 1987 ), " The Message to the Planet " ( 1989 ), and " The Green Knight " ( 1993 ). In 2008 , " The Times " ranked Murdoch twelfth on a list of " The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 ".