One of Shakespeare's most quotable plays, and brilliantly written. Perhaps the best written of them all. Yet even so not my favourite. I find it hard to separate my admiration for Hamlet the play with my absolute dislike of Hamlet the character - whiny, destructive, absolutely uncaring of his friends. Claudius may have been a fratricidal villain, but he's spot on when he argues that Hamlet's behaviour is a threat to all around him. Can you imagine that little horror as King himself one day? I can, and shudder to do so. Denmark got lucky the day Hamlet managed, through bad sense and bad management, to get himself slaughtered alongside everyone else.