Characters in Hamlet He is the courtier sent by Claudius to invite Hamlet to participate in the duel with Laertes. (This character is called "Ostricke" in the Second Quarto.) Osric, as well as Polonius, attempts to engage with Hamlet in the elaborate, witty discourse, fully consistent with Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 work, "The Courtier". This work outlines several courtly rules, specifically advising royal retainers to amuse their masters with inventive language. The Players are a company of actors who arrive at Elsinore Castle. Friends of Hamlet, they had earlier performed in "the city" (presumably Copenhagen), but faced stiff competition from boy performers, so they
Critical approaches to Hamlet attention. Even more important was the question of decorum, which in the case of "Hamlet" focused on the play's violation of tragic unity of time and place, and on the characters. Jeremy Collier attacked the play on both counts in his "Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage", published in 1698. Comparing Ophelia to Electra, he condemns Shakespeare for allowing his heroine to become "immodest" in her insanity, particularly in the "Flower Scene". Collier's attack occasioned a widespread, often vituperative controversy. "Hamlet" in general and Ophelia in particular were defended by Thomas D'urfey and George Drake