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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern(play)

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Not to be confused withRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Illustration for a 1904 celebrity charity performance, with the author as Claudius

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, A Tragic Episode, in Three Tabloidsis a short play byW. S. Gilbertthat parodiesWilliam Shakespeare'sHamlet.The main characters in Gilbert's play areKing ClaudiusandQueen Gertrudeof Denmark, their sonPrince Hamlet,the courtiersRosencrantz and Guildenstern,andOphelia.

Gilbert's play first appeared inFunmagazinein 1874 after having been rejected for production by several theatre companies.[1][2]The first professional performance of the work was not until June 1891, a benefit matinée at theVaudeville Theatrein London.[3]The play finally ran at theCourt Theatrefrom 27 April 1892 to 15 July, about 77 performances,[4]withDecima Mooreas Ophelia,Brandon Thomasas Claudius andWeedon Grossmithas Hamlet.[5]An amateur performance in 1900 featuredP. G. Wodehouseas Guildenstern.[6]The play also enjoyed a production in New York City at theMurray Hill Theatrein 1900. A charity performance in 1902 featured Gilbert himself as Claudius, withNancy McIntoshas Gertrude.[7]Gilbert again played Claudius at a charity performance in 1904 at theGarrick Theatre(also featuringClo Graves,Francis Burnand,Edward Rose,Paul Rubens,Lady Colin Campbell,Madeleine Lucette Ryley,Col. Newnham Davis,Alfred Sutro,Alicia Ramsey,Edward RoseandCapt. Robert Marshall)[8][9][10]and in a 1908 revival at theLyceum TheatrestarringMarion Terry.[11]

A televised performance of the play was given in 1938 withGrahame Cliffordas Claudius,Erik Chittyas Guildenstern,Leonard Sachsas Rosencrantz, and Peter Ridgeway as Hamlet.[12]The play continues to receive occasional productions.[13]

Background[edit]

W. S. GilbertandMarion TerryinRosencrantz and Guildenstern,1908

1874 was a busy year for Gilbert. He illustratedThe Piccadilly Annual;supervised a revival ofPygmalion and Galatea;and, besidesRosencrantz and Guildenstern,he wroteCharity;a play about the redemption of a fallen woman; a dramatisation ofOught We to Visit Her?(a novel byAnnie Edwardes), an adaptation from the French,Committed for Trial,another adaptation from the French calledThe Blue-Legged Lady,a play,Sweethearts,andTopsyturveydom,acomic opera.He also wrote aBab-illustrated story called "The Story of a Twelfth Cake" for theGraphicChristmas number.

Gilbert first shopped the script forRosencrantz and Guildensternin early 1874 toHenry Irving,who showed interest but became busy with other projects. He next offered it to William Montague at theGlobe Theatre,and Montague also expressed interest but later became unavailable.[1]Gilbert next tried his friendMarie Littonand herCourt Theatrecompany. Failing to find a producer, he published the piece inFun,even though he was unhappy atFun's choice of a new editor to succeed the ailingTom Hood.[2][14]

Of Gilbert's acting in the role of Claudius in 1904,The Timeswrote: "His Claudius was certainly admirable. He would play Claudius inHamletfinely, only the part would give him no chance of making the 'points' he makes so well. "[15]

Synopsis[edit]

Tableau I

Inblank verse,King Claudius of Denmark confesses to his wife, Queen Gertrude, a secret crime of his youth: not that of killing anyone; rather, he was guilty of writing a five-act tragedy. The tragedy closed halfway through the first act as a result of derisive laughter from the audience. The humiliated Claudius decreed that anyone who mentions the play must be executed. The king puns: "The play was not good – but the punishment of those that laughed at it was capital." The queen counsels Claudius to forget about it and steers the conversation to the problem at hand: Prince Hamlet, a philosopher whose sanity is in doubt ( "Opinion is divided.... Some [say] that he's really sane, but shamming mad" ), suffers from an alarming "tendency to long soliloquy". To cheer him up, she has sent for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to divert her son with merriment. Perhaps they will also cheer the king.

1891 illustration from an early production with the original cast

Unfortunately, Rosencrantz is in love with Hamlet's fiancée, Ophelia. She joins in their plan to break her unwanted engagement to the mercurial prince: Guildenstern and Rosencrantz will trick Hamlet into playing Claudius' tragedy before the king and thereby incur death. The only surviving copy of the play is in the study of Ophelia's father, theLord Chamberlain(the state censor). Ophelia is confident that she can steal it – her father sleeps very soundly after reading all the "rubbishing" new plays all day.

Tableau II

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell the Queen that they will have Hamlet play a leading part in some court theatricals to distract him. Hamlet enters, and she begs them to prevent him from soliloquising. Hamlet begins, "To be – or not to be," but they interrupt him, turning the soliloquy into a trio, and urging him to commit suicide. Hamlet responds: "It must be patent to the merest dunce / Three persons can't soliloquize at once!"

Ophelia is terrified by the ghosts from "five thousand plays" that haunt her father's study, "chattering forth the scenes [that her] poor father wisely had cut out". But she manages to remove the manuscript. The conspirators show Hamlet the five-act tragedy "Gonzago" (without revealing its authorship). They use reverse psychology, urging him not to produce it. They tell him that it is too long and all the parts are insignificant except his own – "A mad Archbishop who becomes a Jew to spite his diocese" and is forced to murder and soliloquise throughout the work. Hamlet insists on performing the tragedy. Thus, the play within a play becomes a trap for Hamlet (rather than Claudius).

Tableau III
Another illustration of the 1904 charity performance.

Rosencrantz tells the king and queen that Hamlet has chosen a tragedy but intends to play it for laughs. Before the play begins, Hamlet instructs his players on his (and W. S. Gilbert's) theory of comic acting:

"I hold that there is no such antick fellow as your bombastical hero who doth so earnestly spout forth his folly as to make his hearers believe that he is unconscious of all incongruity".[16]

The First Player responds indignantly that the actors know their craft. King Claudius and his court attend the performance, and soon the audience is roaring with laughter, except for Claudius, who realises that it is his own banned play. Claudius condemns Hamlet to death. Ophelia suggests that instead of killing the prince, the King should banish him to "Engle-land", where "dwell a cultured race". Claudius assents, commenting, "They're welcome to his philosophic brain." Hamlet is banished, and Rosencrantz embraces Ophelia.

Reception[edit]

A reviewer of the 1891 performance inThe Timeswrote: "Lines of the familiar topsy-turvey description abound in the dialogue, and the 'business' of the actors, which has also been devised by Mr. Gilbert, is hardly less amusing. In short, the little piece is a great success."[17]The same newspaper had a positive reaction to the 1892 production, in whichWeedon Grossmithplayed Hamlet.[18]Their review of the 1904 production stated:

There is more brilliance of merely verbal wit in this little play than in anything else of Mr. Gilbert's.... The temptation to dwell on the things that raise a laugh at every line is strong but there is a great deal more in the play than mere amusement. It is really a very subtle piece of criticism, sometimes of Shakespeare’s play, sometimes of the commentators, sometimes of the actors who have played the great part.

— The Times[19]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^abAinger, p. 105
  2. ^abStedman, p. 127
  3. ^The Era,7 May 1892, p. 9, gives the date as 14 June, butWho's Who in the Theatre,14th edition, Pitman 1967,ISBN0-273-43345-8,gives it as 3 June.
  4. ^Moss, Simon."Rosencrantz and Guildenstern"atGilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia,c20th, accessed 21 November 2009
  5. ^The Era,30 April 1892, p. 9
  6. ^McCrum, p. 36
  7. ^The Manchester Guardian,7 November 1902, p. 4
  8. ^Theatre programme, 19 July 1904, Garrick Theatre, "A Special Matinee in Aid of The Bushey Heath Cottage Hospital". "Harlequin & The Fairy's Dilemma" and "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern"
  9. ^The Manchester Guardian,20 July 1904, p. 4. The advertised cast includedGeorge Bernard Shaw,Anthony HopeandHenry Arthur Jones,but they did not appear in the performance.The Fairy's Dilemmawas the curtain raiser.
  10. ^"Special matinee by amateurs at [the] Garrick Theatre..."Folger Shakespeare Library.Retrieved5 October2022.
  11. ^The Times,15 July 1908, p. 15
  12. ^IMDb entry for the 1938 TV version
  13. ^Notice of a 2007 performance of the play
  14. ^Ainger, p. 106
  15. ^"Garrick Theatre",The Times,20 July 1904, p. 10
  16. ^Crowther, Andrew,The Life of W. S. Gilbert,Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, March 1997, accessed 31 July 2018. The speech parallels Hamlet's instructions to the players inHamletAct III, scene ii: "And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it."
  17. ^"Vaudeville Theatre",The Times,June 4, 1891
  18. ^"Court Theatre",The Times,April 28, 1892
  19. ^"Garrick Theatre",The Times,July 20, 1904
  20. ^Official film websiteArchived8 September 2009 at theWayback Machine

References[edit]

External links[edit]

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