HISTORIES PROBLEM PLAYSCOMEDIES TRAGEDIES ROMANCES

0

25

50

75character count

34

C of E

1 Hen

ry VI

2 Hen

ry VI

3 Hen

ry VI

Shre

w

Titus

Two G

ents

Rich

ard I

II

LLL

R & J

Mid

sum

mer

Rich

ard I

I

King

John

Mer

chan

t

1 Hen

ry IV

2 Hen

ry IV

Henr

y V

Muc

h Ado

Mer

ry W

ives

As Yo

u Lik

e It

Caes

ar

Ham

let

12th

Nig

ht

T & C

All's

Well

Mea

sure

Othe

llo

King

Lear

Mac

beth

A & C

Timon

Peric

les

Corio

lanu

s

Cym

belin

e

Win

ter's

Tem

pest

Hamlet

Shakespeare’s

BY THE NUMBERS

Act One: 852 lineslonger than average (average play: 582, average tragedy: 660)

Act Two: 663 lineslonger than average play (average play: 567, average tragedy: 606)

Act Three: 895 lineslongest of all plays; thus longer than average play (576) and average tragedy (644)

Act Four: 643 lineslonger than average (average play: 560, average tragedy: 547)

Act Five: 675 lineslonger than average (average play: 484, average tragedy: 478)

Hamlet: By the Numbers by The Bill/Shakespeare Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.Based on a work at http://thebillshakespeareproject.com/2015/05/hamlet-by-the-numbers.

CREDITS:sources: work-speci�c: Holland, Peter, ed. 1999. Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare, William. New York: Penguin. by comparison: assorted plays, Shakespeare, William. New York: Penguin.

design:Bill Walthall, FireMuse Publishing

Hamlet

3.753.75

4.00

4.50

4.00

romances

avg. 20.00

5.00

4.22

5.22

5.89

3.78

tragedies

avg. 24.11

3.20

4.60

4.60

4.20

3.80

problem plays

avg. 20.40

3.89

4.11

4.675.89

5.78

histories

avg. 24.33

3.00

3.44

3.11

3.56

2.78

comedies

avg. 15.89

20 scenes

5

4

2

7 2

3.83

4.03

4.39

4.86

4.03

overall

avg. 21.14

scenes by act

Hamlet

3.75572.0

493.0

450.5

610.25

532.5

romances

avg. 2658.25

659.9

606.3

644.1

547.0

478.9

tragedies

avg. 2936.22

564.4

588.2

571.6

558.2

448.8

problem plays

avg. 2731.2

611.6

620.7

631.9

651.1

499.0

histories

avg. 3014.22

487.6

494.9

512.1

459.6

470.6

comedies

avg. 2424.67

3728 lines

852

663895

643

675

581.7

566.9

576.5

559.8

483.6

overall

avg. 2768.47

lines by act

3.75

527.5

1924.0

206.75

romances

avg. 2658.25

482.7

2308.7

144.9

tragedies

avg. 2936.22

140.2

931.2

1659.8

problem plays

avg. 2731.2

548.1

2284.4

181.7histories

avg. 3014.22

361.3

930.91132.4

comedies

avg. 2424.67

Hamlet

3728 lines

2698183 rhyme

1030 prose

728.75

1825.3

214.42overall

avg. 2768.47

lines by type

verse

TYPES OF LINES

proserhymedpoetry

1030 lines of prose 27.33% of total lines; about average for a play (26.32%), more than average tragedy: 16.44%)

183 rhyming lines 4.91% of total lines, lower than the average play (8.35%) and tragedy (5.09%)

ON

EACTS

THRE

E

TWO

FOU

R

FIVE

[by gradation]

20 scenes abut average for plays (21), less than average tragedy (24)

34 characters about average for play (36), less than average tragedy (39)

3728 total linesthe longest of all plays, thus longer than the average (average play: 2768; average tragedy (2938)Act Two, Scene Two is the longest of its kind in the Canon (544)

A mourning son, who would be king.

A ghost of his father, who had been king.

His murderous uncle, who is king.

Revenge, a play, and madness--both feigned and all-too (and suicidal-ly) real. It's the Tragedy of Hamlet,

Prince of Denmark.

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