Characters in Hamlet means act 3, scene 1, line 55. References to the First Quarto and First Folio are marked "Hamlet "Q1"" and "Hamlet "F1"", respectively, and are taken from the Arden Shakespeare "Hamlet: the texts of 1603 and 1623" (Thompson and Taylor, 2006b). Their referencing system for "Q1" has no act breaks, so 7.115 means scene 7, line 115. Characters in Hamlet What follows is an overview of the main characters in William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", followed by a list and summary of the minor characters from the play. Three different early versions of the play survive: known as the First Quarto ("Q1"),
Antony and Cleopatra inappropriate as a description, as the scene changes are often very fluid, almost montage-like. The large number of scenes is necessary because the action frequently switches between Alexandria, Italy, Messina in Sicily, Syria, Athens, and other parts of Egypt and the Roman Republic. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale. Many critics have noted the strong influence of Virgil's first-century Roman epic poem, the "Aeneid", on Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra". Such influence should be expected, given the prevalence of allusions to Virgil in the Renaissance culture in which Shakespeare was