Rosencrantz

Rosencrantz is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is one of the courtiers at the Danish court and a childhood friend of Prince Hamlet. In the play, he and his companion Guildenstern are summoned by Claudius and Queen Gertrude to Elsinore to discover the cause of Hamlet's apparent madness.

In the narrative, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are used as intermediaries and spies by the king and queen. They attempt to elicit information from Hamlet and to assess his mental state, often speaking with him in a manner that highlights themes of appearance versus reality, manipulation, and the politics of the Danish court. Their relationship with Hamlet is overtly loyal to the royal pair, and their interactions contribute to the play’s exploration of trust and betrayal.

Rosencrantz's fate, along with Guildenstern's, is linked to the broader political intrigue of the plot. They accompany Hamlet to England bearing a sealed letter from Claudius that orders Hamlet's execution. In most productions, the two are ultimately killed in England as a consequence of the way the letter is executed, and Hamlet survives to confront the consequences of the court's schemes. The line Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead appears in the play's final act, underscoring the expendable role assigned to them within the state machinery of the tragedy.

The character has influenced later works, most notably Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), which reimagines them as central figures in a existential and comedic framework. The name Rosencrantz itself is of German origin, from Rosenkranz, meaning rosary or crown of roses.