Guildenstern

Family: Denmark · Role: courtier · First appears: Hamlet · Act II, Scene II

Life events

• King and Queen summon Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to investigate Hamlet’s transformation.(Hamlet · Act II, Scene II)
  • With: Claudius Gertrude Rosencrantz
  • “The need we have to use you did provoke Our hasty sending. Something have you heard Of Hamlet’s transformation; so I call it”
• Hamlet discovers that King and Queen sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to him.(Hamlet · Act II, Scene II)
  • With: Hamlet Rosencrantz Claudius Gertrude
  • “GUILDENSTERN. My lord, we were sent for.”
• A company of players is ordered to perform before Hamlet.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene I)
  • With: Hamlet Rosencrantz
  • “They are about the court, And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him.”
• The King becomes severely distressed after the performance, prompting Guildenstern to report his condition.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene II)
  • With: Claudius
  • “GUILDENSTERN. The King, sir— HAMLET. Ay, sir, what of him? GUILDENSTERN. Is in his retirement, marvellous distempered.”
• The Queen summons Hamlet to her closet, and Hamlet agrees to meet her.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene II)
  • With: Player Queen Hamlet
  • “ROSENCRANTZ. She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed. HAMLET. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother.”
• King orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to escort Hamlet to England under royal commission.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene III · 📍 England)
  • With: Claudius Rosencrantz Hamlet
  • “Therefore prepare you, I your commission will forthwith dispatch, And he to England shall along with you.”
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are ordered to bring Polonius’s body into the chapel.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene I · 📍 chapel)
  • With: Rosencrantz Polonius
  • “Friends both, go join you with some further aid: Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother’s closet hath he dragg’d him. Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body Into the chapel.”
• King commands Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to escort Hamlet aboard without delay.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene III · 📍 England)
  • With: Claudius Rosencrantz Hamlet
  • “Follow him at foot. Tempt him with speed aboard; Delay it not; I’ll have him hence tonight. Away, for everything is seal’d and done That else leans on th’affair. Pray you make haste.”
• Hamlet forges a commission ordering the bearers' execution instead of his own.(Hamlet · Act V, Scene II)
  • With: Hamlet Claudius Rosencrantz
  • “I sat me down, Devis’d a new commission, wrote it fair: I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair, and labour’d much How to forget that learning; but, sir, now It did me yeoman’s service. Wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote? HORATIO. Ay, good my lord. HAMLET. An earnest conjuration from the King, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should still her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma ’tween their amities, And many such-like ‘as’es of great charge, That on the view and know of these contents, Without debatement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allow’d.”
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are reported dead in England.(Hamlet · Act V, Scene II)
  • With: Rosencrantz
  • “The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, To tell him his commandment is fulfill’d, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.”

Hamlet · Act II, Scene II

• friends with Hamlet “by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love”
• liege: Claudius “We both obey, And here give up ourselves, in the full bent, To lay our service freely at your feet To be commanded.”
• liege: Gertrude “We both obey, And here give up ourselves, in the full bent, To lay our service freely at your feet To be commanded.”

Hamlet · Act III, Scene II

• friends with Hamlet “To withdraw with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?”

Hamlet · Act III, Scene III

• liege: Claudius (Guildenstern explicitly pledges concern for the safety of the king and his subjects.) “Most holy and religious fear it is To keep those many many bodies safe That live and feed upon your Majesty.”

Hamlet · Act IV, Scene I

• friends with Rosencrantz “Ho, Guildenstern! Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Friends both, go join you with some further aid:”

Hamlet · Act IV, Scene III

• liege: Claudius “ROSENCRANTZ. Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord. Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.”

Hamlet · Act V, Scene II

• with Hamlet (interaction) “So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t.”

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Extracted from the original text of Shakespeare's Tragedies. Made with Rho MD.