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# Voltaire calls “Hamlet” a crude and savage play and describes its scenes
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/gamlet-grubaia-i-dikaia-pesa-kotoruiu-by-ne-stalo-chitat-dazhe-prostonarode-vo-frantsii-ili-italii/
- Published: 2017-09-22T20:17:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:51:47.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, People, Humour

"Hamlet" is a crude 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 the father of his beloved, pretending that he is killing 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 their hands. To their vile coarseness Hamlet replies with antics no less disgusting. Hamlet, his mother and his stepfather feast on the stage; songs are bawled at table, and on the stage people brawl, fight and kill. One might truly think this play the work of a drunken savage.

Voltaire