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Plays › The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark › Marcellus

Marcellus

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark · 36 speeches across 4 scenes

A loyal officer of the watch at Elsinore. He is a witness to the Ghost and a voice of common-sense foreboding.

Who they are

Marcellus is a Danish soldier who stands guard with Horatio and Barnardo, first encountering the Ghost of King Hamlet. His primary function is to establish the play's ominous atmosphere and deliver the iconic line, 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.' His role ends after swearing secrecy with Hamlet in Act 1, having served as a crucial conduit of the supernatural into the human world.

Playing them

Play with a soldier's grounded, watchful energy and a voice of firm authority tinged with awe. His physicality should be alert and disciplined, but his emotional range shifts from professional duty to genuine fear and superstitious wonder. The delivery of 'Something is rotten...' should carry the weight of a profound, instinctive diagnosis.

Appearance

Typically costumed as a palace guard or watchman, often in armor or a uniform, carrying a partisan (a type of spear). His presence is military and functional.

Worth knowing

The name Marcellus is Roman, not Danish, which may be a Shakespearean anachronism. As a common soldier, he represents the perspective of the Danish populace sensing the corruption of their rulers.

Where they appear

Play Marcellus

Take the part and Yorick reads every other role aloud, following you line by line as you speak.

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Shakespeare the way it was meant to be had — out loud

These plays were written to be performed, not silently read. Yorick is a rehearsal app that lets you perform them: you take a part in any of Shakespeare’s 38 plays, and Yorick reads every other role aloud, listens while you speak your lines, keeps your place, and prompts you the moment you dry.

It is built for the person who has to be off book by tech week — school and college productions, community theatre, festivals, drama students and classical auditions — and for anyone who wants to hear a scene rather than skim it. Alongside the performance you get a plain-English translation of every speech, scene context, performance notes, and the ability to ask about any line and get an answer that already knows the play, the scene and who is speaking.

The text is the public-domain Cambridge/Globe edition. Translations and notes are AI-generated rehearsal aids for actors and students, not a scholarly apparatus. Yorick runs in a browser with nothing to install, and on iPhone and Android.