King Claudius is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the brother to King Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and uncle to Hamlet. He obtained the throne of Denmark by murdering his own brother with poison and then marrying the late king's widow. He is loosely based on the Jutish chieftain Feng who appears in Chronicon Lethrense and in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.
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Famous quotes containing the word king:
“There is no king or sovereign state
That can fix a hero’s rate;
Each to all is venerable.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)