Which playwright wrote the tragedy "Hamlet"?

William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy “Hamlet.”

Usually titled “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” the play was written around 1599–1601. It is set mainly at Elsinore, where Prince Hamlet struggles after learning that his uncle Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father and took the Danish throne. The resulting story combines revenge, political suspicion, grief, madness, performance, and moral uncertainty.

“Hamlet” draws on older material, including the legend of Amleth recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. Shakespeare reshaped that revenge story into one of the most influential works in English drama. The play is especially associated with Hamlet’s soliloquies, including the famous “To be, or not to be” speech.

Several early printed versions survive, including the First Quarto of 1603, the Second Quarto of 1604–05, and the First Folio of 1623. These texts differ in wording and length, which is why modern editions sometimes combine readings. John Webster, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe were important English dramatists, but they did not write “Hamlet.”