The ghost of the King of Denmark tells his son Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing the new king Claudius, Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet feigns madness, contemplates life and death, and seeks revenge. His uncle, fearing for his life, also devises plots to kill Hamlet. It was in late 1601 or early 1602 that William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote his Tragic History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, inspired by extracts of Tragic Histories taken from the Italian works of Bandello de François de Belleforest (1556). It was undoubtedly for the actor that he especially admired, Richard Burbage, that he wrote this tragedy, surely the most mysterious and Freudian, at the same time as he finished his most joyous comedy, Twelfth Night.—ZDF/ARTE