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# Voltaire on the play “Hamlet”, which he sees as the work of a drunken savage
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/gamlet-grubaia-i-dikaia-pesa-kotoruiu-by-ne-stalo-chitat-dazhe-prostonarode-vo-frantsii-ili-italii-2/
- Published: 2025-07-18T11:11:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:48:31.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Humour

> "Hamlet" is a coarse and barbarous play which even the common people of France or Italy would not deign to read. Hamlet goes mad in the second act, and his beloved in the third. The prince kills his beloved's father, pretending to kill a rat, and the heroine throws herself into a river. A grave is dug right on the stage, and the gravediggers, as is their wont, speak in riddles, skulls in hand. To their vile rudeness Hamlet replies with no less disgusting antics. Hamlet, his mother and his stepfather carouse on the stage; songs are sung at the table, and on the stage people abuse one another, fight and kill. One might truly think this play the work of a drunken savage.

Voltaire