Borrowing Hamlet

July 25: On this day in 1602 “A booke called the Revenge of Hamlett Prince Denmarke” was entered in the Stationers’ Register by printer James Robertes. If Robertes was practicing standard thievery for these pre-copyright times, Shakespeare too had borrowed, taking much of his plot from an eleventh-to-twelfth-century Danish saga entitled Amleth. And the borrowing continues, according to a website listing some 800 book titles alluding to Shakespeare’s play.