| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | |
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Real Names |
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern |
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First Appearance |
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1599-1601) |
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Created by |
William Shakespeare |
Origin[]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are childhood friends of Hamlet, summoned by King Claudius to distract the prince from his apparent madness and if possible to ascertain the cause of it.The characters were revived in W. S. Gilbert's satire, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern always appear as a pair, except in editions following the First Folio text, where Guildenstern enters four lines after Rosencrantz in Act IV, Scene 3.
The two courtiers first appear in Act II, Scene 2, where they attempt to place themselves in the confidence of Prince Hamlet, their childhood friend. The smooth and courtly language they employ immediately establishes them as sycophants really serving as spies for the corrupt King Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, who usurped the throne and constantly attempts to check his nephew. Hamlet welcomes them as "excellent good friends", but, seeing through their guise, comments that they won't "deal justly" with him about their mission. Realising that he lacks allies except for Horatio, Hamlet gives the speech "What a piece of work is a man" to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
In Act III, Hamlet seems to drop the pretense of friendship, coldly dismissing the two in Scene 2. Line 319 is perhaps his only use of the royal "we" in the play, although he may also be addressing the other person present on the stage, Horatio, with whom Hamlet first saw the ghost they are discussing. To his mother, he comments in Scene 4 that "I will trust [them] as I will adders fang'd." When Hamlet kills Polonius, Claudius recruits Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to escort Hamlet to England, providing them with a letter for the King of England instructing him to have Hamlet killed. (They are apparently unaware of what is in the letter, though Shakespeare never explicitly says so.) Along the journey, the distrustful Hamlet finds and rewrites the letter, instructing the executioner to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. When their ship is attacked by pirates, Hamlet returns to Denmark, leaving Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to die; he comments in Act V, Scene 2 that "They are not near my conscience; their defeat / Does by their own insinuation grow." Ambassadors returning later report that "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead."
W. S. Gilbert's play (1874) is a comedy in which Rosencrantz plots with his friend Guildenstern to get rid of Hamlet, so that Rosencrantz can marry Ophelia. They discover that Claudius has written a play. The king's literary work is so embarrassingly bad that Claudius has decreed that anyone who mentions it must be executed. They obtain the manuscript and convince Hamlet to perform it. When he does, Claudius decrees that he must die, but is eventually persuaded to banish him to England. Rosencrantz and Ophelia can now be together.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Stage Appearances[]
- The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1599-1601)
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (1891)
- Ambleto by Francesco Gasparini (1706)
- Amleto by Domenico Scarlatti (1715)
- Amleto by Gaetano Andreozzi (1792)
- Amleto by Franco Faccio (libretto by Arrigo Boito) (1865)
- Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas (1868)
Public Domain Film Appearances[]
- Le Duel d'Hamlet (France 1900)
- Hamlet (France 1907)
- Hamlet (Italy 1908)
- Hamlet (UK 1910)
- Hamlet (Denmark 1910)
- Amleto (Italy 1910)
- Hamlet (UK 1913)
- Hamlet (Italy 1917)
- Oh'Phelia (UK, 1919)
- Hamlet (Germany 1921)
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Stories by Famous Authors #8
Notes[]
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern served as the inspiration for Timon and Pumbaa in Disney's The Lion King.