Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are courtiers who are sent by the king to spy on Hamlet, using their claimed friendship with him to gain his confidence. The characters were revived in W. S. Gilbert's satire, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and as the alienated heroes of Tom Stoppard's absurdist play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Rosencrantz ("rosary") and Gyldenstjerne/Gyllenstierna ("golden star") were names of Danish (and Swedish) noble families of the 16th century; records of the Danish royal coronation of 1596 show that one tenth of the aristocrats participating bore one or the other name. James Voelkel suggests that the characters were named after Frederick Rosenkrantz and Knud Gyldenstierne (cousins of Tycho Brahe), who had visited England in 1592.