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Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2: Hamlet and Guildenstern
Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2: Hamlet and Guildenstern
Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2: Hamlet and Guildenstern

Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2: Hamlet and Guildenstern

Maker (French, 1798-1863)
Datecirca 1834
MediumLithograph on heavy wove paper
DimensionsImage: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Credit LineUniversity Transfer from Max Epstein Archive, Gift of the Carnegie Corporation, 1927
Collections
Object number1967.116.84
Status
Not on view
Description
Doubt still lingers as to whether Eugène Delacroix discovered Hamlet through a newly available French translation or through staged productions he saw in Paris or London. What is certain is that the play—about a Danish prince struggling to avenge the murder of his father at the hands of his scheming uncle, Claudius—fully captured the artist’s imagination. Beguiled by its Romantic sensibilities, Delacroix spent nearly a decade making a series of lithographs inspired by Hamlet. In 1843, he finally published them as a vanity project at his own expense. These were not “illustrations” but images to be viewed independently of the corresponding text. In this scene, the seventh in the series, Hamlet poses a derisive question to his childhood friend Guildenstern, newly arrived at court: “Do you want to play a little on this flute?” This hints at Hamlet’s suspicion that Guildenstern should not be trusted, and is in effect playing him like a flute. Hamlet poses this question as they prepare the play-within-a-play intended to entrap Claudius in his guilt.