Hamnet Shakespeare

Hamnet Shakespeare (baptised February 2 1585 – buried August 11 1596) was the only son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and the fraternal twin of Judith Shakespeare.cite book
last = Chambers
first = Edmund Kerchever
authorlink = Edmund Kerchever Chambers
title = William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems
publisher = Clarendon Press
location = Oxford
year = 1930
pages = I. p.18
quote = A daughter Susanna was baptized on 26 May 1583, and followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith, on 2 February 1585. Guesses at godparents are idle where common names, such as Shakespeare's own, are concerned. But those of the twins, which are unusual, point to Hamnet or Hamlet Sadler, a baker of Stratford, and his wife Judith. ] cite book
last = Schoenbaum
first = Samuel
authorlink = Samuel Schoenbaum
title = William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life
publisher = Clarendon Press
location = Oxford
year = 1987
pages = p.94
quote = […] the twins were christened […] on 2 February 1585. Richard Barton of Coventry […] officiated [.] ] Chambers, I. p.21. “ […] Hamnet was buried at Stratford on 11 August 1596.”] cite book
last = Schoenbaum
first = Samuel
authorlink = Samuel Schoenbaum
title = William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life
publisher = Clarendon Press
location = Oxford
year = 1987
pages = p.224
quote = […] the parish register records the burial of […] Hamnet, aged eleven and a half. His death doomed the male line of the Shakespeares to extinction.] He died at age eleven of unknown causes. Some traditions maintain that Hamnet's death motivated his father to write the play "Hamlet". However, the majority of scholars disagree with this tradition. OthersWho|date=September 2008 theorize that Hamnet's death prompted the writing of "Twelfth Night", which centers on a girl who believes that her twin brother has died. [Wheeler, Richard P.: "Death in the Family: The Loss of a Son and the Rise of Shakespearean Comedy," "Shakespeare Quarterly", 51(2000):pp.127-153]

Life

Relatively little is known about the short life of this child, who might have carried on the Shakespeare family name had he survived to adulthood. Hamnet and his twin sister Judith were born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised on February 2 1585 in Holy Trinity Church by Richard Barton of Coventry. The twins were likely named after friends of their parents, Hamnet Sadler, a baker, and his wife, Judith. There is very little information about Hamnet's upbringing. He was likely raised principally by his mother Anne in the Henley Street house belonging to his grandfather.

Connection to "Hamlet"

Hamnet died at the age of eleven and was buried in Stratford on August 11 1596. The traditional view is that speculation that grief over his only son's death may have spurred Shakespeare to write the tragedy "Hamlet" (composed 1599/1601) is in all likelihood incorrect; the name of the character in the play has a different derivation. [Chambers, ii. p.3-4 “The resemblance of the name to that of the hero of Shakespeare's tragedy, which has a different Scandinavian origin, can hardly be more than a coincidence.”] More recent scholarship, however, has emphasised that, while "Hamlet" has a separate origin and may have been selected as a play subject for commercial reasons, Shakespeare's grief over the loss of his only son may lie at the heart of the tragedy. [Greenblatt, Stephen (2004). "Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare". New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-05057-2.] Greenblatt, Stephen. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17483 "The Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet"] . "N.Y. Review of Books" 51.16 (Oct. 21, 2004).] The names "Hamlet" and "Hamnet" were considered virtually interchangeable, and Shakespeare's own will spelled Hamnet Sadler's first name as "Hamlett." [ [http://www.bardweb.net/will.html Shakespeare's Last Will and Testament] .]

References

External links

* [http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-children-and-grandchildren.htm Shakespeare's children and grandchildren]