Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (play) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (play) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, A Tragic Episode, in Three Tabloids is a short comic play by W. S. Gilbert, a parody of "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare. The main characters in Gilbert's play are King Claudius and Queen Gertrude of Denmark, their son Prince Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Ophelia. Gilbert's play first appeared in "Fun" magazine in 1874 after having been rejected for production by several theatre companies. The first performance of the work was not until June 1891, a benefit matinée at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. The play finally ran at the Court
Characters of Shakespear's Plays weakness is made to undermine his strength. Hazlitt often focuses, as well, on specific traits by comparing the characters not to those of real life but to characters in Shakespeare's other plays, comparing, for example, Iago with Edmund in "King Lear". His interest in the art of drama emerges even more obviously when he compares Iago with the villainous character Zanga in Edward Young's "The Revenge" (1721), still a popular play in Hazlitt's day. For Hazlitt, "Othello" is especially notable for the interplay between the characters, and the way Shakespeare communicates the slow and gradual "movement of passion [...] the