Hamlet

Hamlet is said to the thirty years old, as evidenced in the gravedigger's scene, during which, Hamlet asks the gravedigger how long he has been digging graves. The gravedigger responds that he started his job on the day prince Hamlet was born, and that he has been "sexton here,
man and boy, thirty years".

One of the big myths in Hamlet is that the graveyard scene, Act 5 Scene 1, around line 160 depending on the edition, establishes Hamlet as a 30 year old prince. Modern editions of the play cater to the fact that the lead roll is played by actors who are relatively old. One of the first Hamlets was Richard Burbage and he was in his early thirties. The text is then fashioned to fit the actor. Looking at the text there are two main sources of the play. One text from 1604, a few years after the play is believed to have been finished and first performed, is designated as the Good Quarto or Second Quarto (Q2). The second, after Shakespeare's death, was published around 1623 and is known as the Folio. Now the line in question is treated very differently between these two texts. From the Q2 we get this line; "Why heere in Denmarke: I haue been Sexten heere man and boy thirty yeeres." But, the Folio has the line as, "Why heere in Denmarke: I haue bin sixeteene heere, man and Boy thirty yeares. " The difference being the words "sixteene" and "Sexten". The problem with Sexten is that one cannot conflate a sexton with a gravedigger. A sexton is a church official. See fo example the sexton in "Much Ado About Nothing". A gravedigger is not a sexton.

Setting aside for a moment that particular line. A closer read of the two main texts along with an earlier version known as the "Bad Quarto" or Q1 shows that time in the play is treated very haphazardly; none of the texts agree when talking about time. The better analysis and one truer to Shakespeare's intent for the play, (contrast this with Romeo and Juliet where time is dealt with very strictly) is Hamlet's maturity or lack thereof. There are many, many signals in the play that peg Hamlet as an adolescent in his later teens. For example the graveyard in 5.1 is something with which Hamlet is totally unfamiliar. It is the first time he has even been to a graveyard. Shakespeare weaves a very complex and juvenile character in Hamlet whose difficulties in the play center on his transition from adolescent to adulthood. It is this that tells us how old Hamlet is.