Hamlet

Hamlet

by

William Shakespeare

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Character Analysis

Read our modern English translation.
A pair of Hamlet’s old school friends whom Claudius summons to Elsinore in order to help determine the source of Hamlet’s madness. After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern admit to Hamlet’s suspicions that they were recruited by the king and queen to spy on him, Hamlet accuses them of being “sponge[s]” who let themselves be taken advantage of by doing Claudius’s dirty work. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are killed after Hamlet learns that Claudius is trying to have him executed, and forges a letter in Claudius’s handwriting ordering the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Quotes in Hamlet

The Hamlet quotes below are all either spoken by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern or refer to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Action and Inaction Theme Icon
).
Act 2, Scene 2 Quotes

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 2.2.268-270
Explanation and Analysis:

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 2.2.273-275
Explanation and Analysis:

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in
reason, how infinite in faculties, in form, in moving
how express and admirable; in action how like
an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the
beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and
yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 2.2.327-332
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 2 Quotes

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery… ’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 3.2.393-402
Explanation and Analysis:
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Quotes in Hamlet

The Hamlet quotes below are all either spoken by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern or refer to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Action and Inaction Theme Icon
).
Act 2, Scene 2 Quotes

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 2.2.268-270
Explanation and Analysis:

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 2.2.273-275
Explanation and Analysis:

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in
reason, how infinite in faculties, in form, in moving
how express and admirable; in action how like
an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the
beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and
yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 2.2.327-332
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 2 Quotes

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery… ’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

Related Characters: Hamlet (speaker), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Page Number: 3.2.393-402
Explanation and Analysis: