Letter: Alas, poor children] We suffered too

Sir: In your leading article 'A dead male playwright' (2 July), you describe Hamlet as 'a timeless drama of teenage angst' concerning 'a boy coming to terms with sexuality and corruption, with the death of his father and with the behaviour of his mother who has, he fears, betrayed her husband'.

Act V, Scene 1, of the play implies that Hamlet was 30 years old and makes it certain that he was a good deal older than 23, the time that had elapsed since the death of Yorick, who had 'borne me on his back a thousand times'.

'We must speak by the card or equivocation will undo us.'

Yours faithfully,

GERALD BONNER

Durham