What influenced Shakespeare to write Hamlet?

missblimey Teacher High School - 12th Grade Hamlet's origins lie in earlier versions of local legends (King Lear and Macbeth are similar in this respect). In Hamlet's case the legend is about a prince named Amleth whose uncle kills his father and marries his mother. The legend was a two centuries old by Shakespeare's day. How it came to his attention is a matter of debate - there is record of a play believed to be an early version of Hamlet some ten years before the play we know today was first performed. This play, referred to by scholars as the Ur-Hamlet ('Ur' means earliest) is lost so we do not know how close a resemblance it bears to its namesake. We also do not know who wrote it. It could have been Shakespeare himself, trying out an early version. However many scholars believe that is was by another writer (possibly Kyd). If so we can suggest that Shakespeare might have seen Ur-Hamlet and this is what influenced him to produce his own version (in those days reworking the ...  more