Yorick is an unseen character in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. He is the dead court jester whose skull is exhumed by the First Gravedigger in Act 5, Scene 1, of the play. The sight of Yorick's skull evokes a reminiscence by Prince Hamlet of the man, who apparently played a role during Hamlet's upbringing:
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?
Yorick's skull in the 'gravedigger scene' (5.1), depicted by Eugène Delacroix.
Portrait of Katheryn of Berain by Adriaen van Cronenburg c.1560. Shakespeare's 1601 poem The Phoenix and the Turtle was published in a collection dedicated to Katheryn's son, John Salusbury.
Frans Hals, Young Man with a Skull
Alas, poor Yorick: a humorous rendering of Laurence Sterne's Yorick by Martin Rowson in his graphic novel of Tristram Shandy
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact 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 tragedies in the English language", with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others". It is widely considered one of the greatest plays of all time. Three different early versions of the play are extant: the First Quarto ; the Second Quarto ; and the First Folio. Each version includes lines and passages missing from the others.
Hamlet portrayed by Edwin Booth (c. 1870)
Hamlet mistakenly stabs Polonius (Artist: Coke Smyth, 19th century).
The gravedigger scene. (Artist: Eugène Delacroix, 1839)
A facsimile of Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, which contains the legend of Amleth