Voltaire on the play “Hamlet”, which he sees as the work of a drunken savage

"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

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Voltaire on the play “Hamlet”, which he sees as the work of a drunken savage

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s