question: Thousands (perhaps even millions) of performances of William Shakespeare's plays have been staged since the end of the 16th century, among the actors of these original performances were Richard Burbage, who played the title role in the first performances of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between, 1599 and what year?
answer: 1602
context: Title: Nicholas Brend
  Passage: Nicholas Brend (c. 1560 – 12 October 1601) inherited from his father the land on which the Globe Theatre was built, and on 21 February 1599 leased it to Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, John Heminges, and William Kempe.  He died two years later, leaving the property on which the Globe was built to his infant son, Matthew Brend, who did not come of age until 6 February 1621.
  Title: Romeo and Juliet
  Passage: Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families.  It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with "Hamlet", is one of his most frequently performed plays.  Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.
  Title: Fratricide Punished
  Passage: Fratricide Punished, or "The Tragedy of Fratricide Punished: or Prince Hamlet of Denmark", is the English name of a German-language play of anonymous origins and disputed age.  Due to similarities of plot and dramatis personae, it is considered to be a German variant of the English play "Hamlet", though possibly not William Shakespeare’s "Hamlet", and is a problematic figure in discussions of Hamlet Q1 and the so-called Ur-Hamlet.  Such discussions have helped to raise interest in the text, which primarily lived in obscurity before the discovery of Q1 in 1823.  "Fratricide Punished" was first published in German from a written manuscript in 1781 and translated to English by Georgina Archer in 1865.  Though the play is readily available online both in English and in German, the manuscript has been lost since its initial publication, and all subsequent editions of the text are, as such, at a remove from the original.  "Fratricide Punished" is often referred to by its German title "Der Bestrafte Brudermord," or "Tragoedia der bestrafte Bruder-mord oder: Prinz Hamlet aus Dännemark."
  Title: Shakespeare in performance
  Passage: Thousands (perhaps even millions) of performances of William Shakespeare's plays have been staged since the end of the 16th century.  While Shakespeare was alive, many of his greatest plays were performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men and King's Men acting companies at the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres. Among the actors of these original performances were Richard Burbage (who played the title role in the first performances of "Hamlet", "Othello", "Richard III" and "King Lear"), Richard Cowley, and William Kempe.
  Title: Matthew Brend
  Passage: Sir Matthew Brend (6 February 1600 – 1659) inherited from his father, Nicholas Brend, the land on which the first and second Globe Theatres were built, and which Nicholas Brend had leased on 21 February 1599 for a 31-year term to Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, John Heminges, and William Kempe.  During much of the time he was the legal owner of the Globe, Matthew Brend was underage, and his properties were managed for him by Sir Matthew Browne, John Collet, Sir John Bodley, and Sir Sigismund Zinzan.  In 1623 Brend conveyed the property on which the Globe was built to his wife, Frances, as part of her jointure.  In 1632 he was sued in the Court of Requests by the remaining original lessee, Cuthbert Burbage, and others, for an extension of their original lease.
  Title: Richard Burbage
  Passage: Richard Burbage (6 January 1567 – 12 March 1619) is considered the first great actor of English theatre.  He is one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre of his time.  In addition to being a stage actor he was also a theatre owner, entrepreneur and painter.  He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage.  They were both actors in drama.  Burbage was a business associate and friend to William Shakespeare.
  Title: Prince Hamlet
  Passage: Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet".  He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, the previous King of Denmark.  At the beginning of the play, he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way.  By the end of the tragedy, Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and two acquaintances of his from the University of Wittenberg Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  He is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia (drowning) and of his mother Gertrude (poisoned by Claudius by mistake).
  Title: Literary influence of Hamlet
  Passage: William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a tragedy, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601.  It tells the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark—who takes revenge on the current king (Hamlet's uncle) for killing the previous king (Hamlet's father) and for marrying his father's widow (Hamlet's mother)—and it charts the course of his real or feigned madness.  "Hamlet" is the longest play—and Hamlet is the largest part—in the entire Shakespeare canon.  Critics say that "Hamlet" "offers the greatest exhibition of Shakespeare's powers".
  Title: Revenge tragedy
  Passage: Revenge tragedy (less commonly referred to as revenge drama, revenge play, or tragedy of blood) defines a genre of plays made popular in early modern England.  Ashley H. Thorndike formally established this genre in his seminal 1902 article "The Relations of Hamlet to Contemporary Revenge Plays," which characterizes revenge tragedy "as a tragedy whose leading motive is revenge and whose main action deals with the progress of this revenge, leading to the death of the murderers and often the death of the avenger himself."  Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy" (c.1580s) is often considered the inaugural revenge tragedy on the early modern stage.  However, more recent research extends early modern revenge tragedy to the 1560s with poet and classicist Jasper Heywood's translations of Seneca at Oxford University, including "Troas" (1559), "Thyestes" (1560), and "Hercules Furens" (1561).  Additionally, Thomases Norton and Sackville's play "Gorbuduc" (1561) is considered an early revenge tragedy (almost twenty years prior to "The Spanish Tragedy").  Other well-known revenge tragedies include William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (c.1599-1602) and "Titus Andronicus" (c.1588-1593) and Thomas Middleton's "The Revenger's Tragedy" (c.1606).
  Title: Hamlet
  Passage: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet ( ), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602.  Set in Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet.  Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brother's widow.
citations: Hamlet Shakespeare in performance