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28-617: Yorick is an unseen character in William Shakespeare 's play Hamlet . He is the dead court jester whose skull is exhumed by the First Gravedigger in Act 5, Scene 1, of the play. The sight of Yorick's skull evokes a reminiscence by Prince Hamlet of the man, who apparently played a role during Hamlet's upbringing: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back

56-542: A celebrated performer of the pre-Shakespearean stage, who had died a decade or so before Hamlet was first performed. The contrast between Yorick as "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy" and his grim remains reflects on the theme of earthly vanity : death being unavoidable, the things of this life are inconsequential. The theme of Memento mori ("Remember you shall die") is common in 16th- and 17th-century painting, appearing in art throughout Europe. Images of Mary Magdalene regularly showed her contemplating

84-480: A mob to storm and take the castle (act 4). Laertes confronts the King, believing him responsible for Polonius's death. The King explains to him who the real killer was, and incites Laertes to kill Hamlet and avenge Polonius's death. When Ophelia appears in her mad condition, Laertes laments, saying that if she had her wits she could not persuade him more to revenge. Later, Laertes is informed of her death. She had climbed into

112-594: A principal character in the novel The Skull of Truth by Bruce Coville. The book title of the novel Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is directly influenced by the first lines spoken by Hamlet in reference to Yorick, after Hamlet discovers the court jester's skull. The book title is specifically and partially taken from the line, "a fellow of infinite jest." Furthermore, the name of Dr. James Orin Incandenza's film company "Poor Yorick Entertainment" in Infinite Jest

140-430: A skull. It is also a very common motif in 15th- and 16th-century British portraiture. Memento mori are also expressed in images of playful children or young men, depicted looking at a skull as a sign of the transience of life. It was also a familiar motif in emblem books and tombs. Hamlet meditating upon the skull of Yorick has become a lasting embodiment of this idea, and has been depicted by later artists as part of

168-471: A thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? ( Hamlet , V.i) It is suggested that Shakespeare may have intended his audience to connect Yorick with the Elizabethan comedian Richard Tarlton ,

196-407: A willow tree that hung over a brook, and then fell into the water when a branch broke. Too insane to save herself, she drowned. His sister's death strengthens Laertes's resolve to kill Hamlet. In act 5, at Ophelia's funeral, Laertes asks why the normal Christian burial ceremony is not being carried out for his sister, and rebukes the priest for questioning her innocence. He leaps into her grave and begs

224-782: Is inspired by the opening line, "Alas, Poor Yorick!" Yorick appears in the Poker -themed video game called Balatro . In the game, Yorick is portrayed as a seemingly unhappy joker with a half-and-half gold and black outfit. Unseen character Unseen characters have been used since the beginning of theatre with the ancient Greek tragedians , such as Laius in Sophocles ' Oedipus Rex and Jason 's bride in Euripides ' Medea , and continued into Elizabethan theatre with examples such as Rosaline in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . However, it

252-489: Is merely to give the playwright an opportunity to introduce Tartuffe. Unseen characters can develop organically even when their creators initially did not expect to keep them as unseen, especially in episodic works like television series. For instance, the producers of Frasier initially did not want to make the character Niles Crane 's wife Maris an unseen character because they did not want to draw parallels to Vera, Norm Peterson 's wife on Cheers , of which Frasier

280-516: Is not Hamlet's own choice but the king's as to whom he will marry. Before Laertes returns to France from Denmark, (having returned to Denmark only to attend the coronation of King Claudius ), his father, Polonius , gives him advice to behave himself in France. During Laertes's absence, Hamlet kills Polonius in Gertrude 's parlour (act 3). Laertes, informed of his father's death, returns to Denmark, and leads

308-536: Is supposed to be descended from Shakespeare's Yorick. The earliest known printed image of Hamlet holding Yorick's skull is a 1773 engraving by John Hall after a design by Edward Edwards in Bell's edition of Shakespeare's plays. It has since become a common subject. While Yorick normally only appears as the skull, there have been scattered portrayals of him as a living man, such as Philip Hermogenes Calderon 's painting The Young Lord Hamlet (1868), which depicts him carrying

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336-408: The 18th-century, Voltaire included unseen characters in a few of his plays, including Le Duc d’Alençon and L’Orphelin de la Chine . Laertes (Hamlet) Laertes / l eɪ ˈ ɜːr t iː z / is a character in William Shakespeare 's play Hamlet . Laertes is Polonius ' son and Ophelia 's brother. In the final scene, he mortally stabs Hamlet with a poison-tipped sword to avenge

364-433: The attendants to bury him with her. Hamlet, who was previously watching from afar, advances and himself leaps into Ophelia's grave. When Laertes attacks Hamlet, the two have to be held back – at the king's command – to avoid a fight. I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes, only I'll be revenged Most throughly for my father. Laertes, Hamlet In

392-408: The audience's tendency to create visual images of imaginary characters in their mind. In a study of 18th-century French comedy, F. C. Green suggests that an "invisible character" can be defined as one who, though not seen, "influences the action of the play". This definition, according to Green, would rule out a character like Laurent (Lawrence), Tartuffe ' s unseen valet, whose sole function

420-531: The child Hamlet on his back, being ridden like a horse by the prince. He was portrayed by comedian Ken Dodd in a flashback during the gravedigging scene in Kenneth Branagh 's 1996 film Hamlet . Pianist André Tchaikowsky donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in theatrical productions, hoping that it would be used as the skull of Yorick. Tchaikowsky died in 1982. His skull

448-547: The deaths of his father and sister, for which he blamed Hamlet. While dying of the same poison, he implicates King Claudius . The Laertes character is thought to be originated by Shakespeare, as there is no equivalent character in any of the known sources for the play. His name is taken from Laërtes , father of Odysseus in Homer 's Odyssey . In the first act, Laertes warns Ophelia against Hamlet's romantic attentions, saying that Hamlet will soon lose his desire for her, and that it

476-570: The ideas that it may be derived from the Viking name of the city of York ( Jórvík ), or that it is a near-anagram of the Greek word 'Kyrios' and thus a reference to the Catholic martyr Edmund Campion . The name was used by Laurence Sterne in his comic novels Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey as the surname of one of the characters, a parson who is a humorous portrait of the author. Parson Yorick

504-441: The next scene (act 5, scene 2), King Claudius arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. Laertes uses his sharp, poisoned sword instead of a bated (dull) sword. The King provides a poisoned drink as a backup measure. Before the match begins, Hamlet apologises publicly to Laertes for the wrongs he has dealt him. Laertes accepts the apology, so he says, but he proceeds with the scheme to kill Hamlet (though after Gertrude drinks

532-441: The onstage characters to a certain course of action and advance the plot, but their presence is unnecessary. Indeed, their absence makes them appear more powerful because they are only known by inference. The use of an unseen character "take[s] advantage of one of the simplest but most powerful theatrical devices: the manner in which verbal references can make an offstage character extraordinarily real [...] to an audience," exploiting

560-438: The performances of this production, its use during rehearsals affected some interpretations and line readings: for example, Rylance delivered the line "That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once" with especial reproach. In this production, Hamlet retained Yorick's skull throughout subsequent scenes, and it was eventually placed on a mantelpiece as a "talisman" during his final duel with Laertes . In 2008, Tchaikowsky's skull

588-399: The poisoned drink, he expresses having an attack of conscience). Hamlet is eventually wounded with the poisoned sword. Then, in a scuffle, the swords are switched. Hamlet wounds Laertes with his own poisoned blade, and Laertes then falls as well. Only then does he truly seem to feel guilty, for he tells Osric he has been "justly killed" with his own treachery. As he lies dying, Laertes confesses

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616-399: The real power of theatre lies in the complicity of illusion between actor and audience, it would be inappropriate to use a real skull during the performances, in the same way that we would not be using real blood, etc. It is possible that some of us felt a certain primitive taboo about the skull, although the gravedigger, as I recall, was all for it! Although Tchaikowsky's skull was not used in

644-466: The truth and reveals that it was Claudius's plot; this results in Hamlet killing Claudius. Laertes asks Hamlet for forgiveness, absolving him of his and his father's deaths if Hamlet absolves him of his own. Hamlet does so, dying shortly after Laertes does. Other characters' views of Laertes vary widely. Polonius feels a need to send a servant to France to spy on his son's behaviour. Ophelia tells him not to be

672-477: The vanitas tradition. The name Yorick has been interpreted as an attempt to render a Scandinavian forename: usually either "Eric" or "Jørg", a form of the name George . The name "Rorik" has also been suggested, since it appears in Saxo Grammaticus , one of Shakespeare's source texts, as the name of the queen's father. There has been no agreement about which name is most likely. Alternative suggestions include

700-484: Was a spin off. They originally intended that Maris would appear after several episodes, but were enjoying writing excuses for her absence so eventually it was decided she would remain unseen, and after the increasingly eccentric characteristics ascribed to her, no real actress could realistically portray her. Unseen characters occur elsewhere in drama, including the plays of Eugene O'Neill , Tennessee Williams , and Edward Albee . Author Marie A. Wellington notes that in

728-462: Was the early twentieth-century European playwrights Strindberg , Ibsen , and Chekhov who fully developed the dramatic potential of the unseen character. Eugene O'Neill was influenced by his European contemporaries and established the absent character as an aspect of character, narrative, and stagecraft in American theatre . Unseen characters are causal figures included in dramatic works to motivate

756-477: Was used by David Tennant in an RSC production of Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon . It was later announced that the skull had been replaced, after it became apparent that news of the skull distracted the audience too much from the play. This was untrue, however, and the skull was used as a prop throughout the run of the production after its move to London's West End . Yorick appears as

784-400: Was used during rehearsals for a 1989 RSC production of Hamlet starring Mark Rylance , but the company eventually decided to use a replica skull in the performance. Musical director Claire van Kampen , who later married Rylance, recalled: As a company, we all felt most privileged to be able to work the gravedigger scene with a real skull ... However, collectively as a group we agreed that as

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