The name, Cornelius, comes from a Roman gens (a gens being a paternal clan.) It goes along with the other Italianate and Roman names in ''Hamlet,'' and along with those other names, implies an older source play set in Italy, which supplied some names that Shakespeare did not bother to change. | The name, Cornelius, comes from a Roman gens (a gens being a paternal clan.) It goes along with the other Italianate and Roman names in ''Hamlet,'' and along with those other names, implies an older source play set in Italy, which supplied some names that Shakespeare did not bother to change. |