High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare`s tragedy Hamlet. They are courtiers who are set 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.