* Hamlet is a play, not a real person: Hamlet is a fictional character within Shakespeare's play *Hamlet*.
* Plays evolve: The play we know as *Hamlet* wasn't written in one go. It likely went through drafts and revisions.
* No firm date: We don't have definitive documentation of the exact date Shakespeare began writing *Hamlet*, nor the date the play took its final form.
However, we can give you some information that helps frame the time period:
* Shakespeare's lifetime: William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616.
* Hamlet's first recorded performance: The first documented performance of *Hamlet* was in 1602.
* Hamlet's probable writing date: Most scholars believe Shakespeare wrote *Hamlet* between 1599 and 1601.
Therefore, while we can't give you a specific creation date, we know that Hamlet's character likely emerged during Shakespeare's writing process between 1599 and 1601.