It was a question of life or death for Hamlet (2,2,2,3,2,2)
I believe the answer is:
to be or not to be
'hamlet' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.
'it was a question of life or death for' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is present in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
'or' is present in the answer.
'for' could be 'to' (eg both can mean 'in the opinion of') and 'to' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for to be or not to be that I've seen before include "Hamlet's phrase (2,2,2,3,2,2)" , "It was the question for 13 (2,2,2,3,2,2)" , "Shall I commit suicide?" , "Hamlet's question (2,2,2,3,2,2)" , "Famous line from Hamlet (2,2,2,3,2,2)" .)