Note to Hamlet, 2.2.117: "Doubt that the sun doth move"


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Hamlet,
Act 2, Scene 2, line 117
We now know that it is the earth that moves relative to the sun, but in Shakespeare's time it was a seemingly obvious truth that it was the sun that moved.

The person who did the most to destroy the idea that the sun circles the earth was Galileo, who was born in the same year (1564) as Shakespeare. However Galileo'sinfluential book on the matter, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, wasn't published until 1632, well after Shakespeare's death in 1616.