Characters in Hamlet Characters in Hamlet What follows is an overview of the main characters in William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", followed by a list and summary of the minor characters from the play. Three different early versions of the play survive: known as the First Quarto ("Q1"), Second Quarto ("Q2"), and First Folio ("F1"), each has lines—and even scenes—missing in the others, and some character names vary. Marcellus, Bernardo (or Barnardo) and Francisco are sentries at Elsinore. Francisco gives up his watch to Bernardo in the opening of the play, and it is Bernardo and Marcellus, who first alert Horatio to the appearance of
Shakespeare apocrypha style". Nonetheless, some of them have been cautiously accepted by mainstream scholarship. The dream of discovering a new Shakespeare play has also resulted in the creation of at least one hoax. In 1796 William Henry Ireland claimed to have found a lost play of Shakespeare entitled "Vortigern and Rowena". Ireland had previously released other documents he claimed were by Shakespeare, but "Vortigern" was the first play he attempted. (He later produced another pseudo-Shakespearean play, "Henry II".) The play was initially accepted by the literary community – albeit not on sight – as genuine. The play was eventually presented at Drury