Hamlet without the Prince

'Hamlet without the Prince' is an idiom that describes an event or occasion at which the expected principal participant is not present. It derives from the absurdity of performing Shakespeare's Hamlet without its principal character. A newspaper in 1775 reported that the actor, who was to play Hamlet at the Covent Garden Theatre in London on 27th September of that year, had absconded at the last minute with the daughter of the innkeeper of a nearby inn. The impresario of the theatre joked with the audience that the play would go on, but without Hamlet, the principal character. This well publicised incident may well have prompted an expression of the idiom, which is first attested in its present form from the early 19th century.