>>ose: stephen grnblatt is a professor of the humanities at harvard. he's a collar and teacher of shakespeare. he's written numerous subjects on that including "shakespeare freedom" "will and the world "and "hamlet in purgatory." i'm pleased to have him to talk about this endlessly fascinating subject and the play everybody looks to as one that begins a lot of things. what's the historical con next >> there had been a hamlet play that was a success. shakespeare often uses other people's materials, sensitive to what is working in the theater, it had been alay, possibly even two of them before that. based on a story that had been told multiple times that goes back to a 12th century danish chronicle. and shakespeare takes this sry which is a revenge story, a bloody mystery and turns it into arguably the greatest single tragedy ever written and a life anging work for him. his career really pivots around... >> rose: what happened to his career? >> well, his career was also already magnificent before then. >> he's unleashed a whole series of... >> it initiat