--- title: Watch Prince Charles Recite Hamlet With Benedict Cumberbatch description: The Prince also shared the stage with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and David Tennant canonical: https://time.com/4306232/watch-prince-charles-recite-hamlet-with-benedict-cumberbatch/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-25T11:20:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:59:56.819Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch Prince Charles Recite Hamlet With Benedict Cumberbatch og:description: The Prince also shared the stage with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and David Tennant og:url: https://time.com/4306232/watch-prince-charles-recite-hamlet-with-benedict-cumberbatch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Prince Charles Recite Hamlet With Benedict Cumberbatch twitter:description: The Prince also shared the stage with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and David Tennant twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Prince Charles Recite Hamlet With Benedict Cumberbatch by [Devan Coggan/Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan/Entertainment Weekly Apr 25, 2016 11:20 AM UTC by [Devan Coggan/Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan/Entertainment Weekly Apr 25, 2016 11:20 AM UTC Prince Charles paid tribute to the Prince of Denmark this weekend, celebrating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death by reading an excerpt from _Hamlet._ The prince made a surprise appearance at this year’s Shakespeare Live gala, where celebrities like Judi Dench, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian McKellen, David Tennant, Rory Kinnear, and more gathered in Stratford-Upon-Avon to honor Shakespeare with readings, tributes, and performances. When Dench, McKellen, Cumberbatch, and the rest took the stage to argue over the proper reading of Hamlet’s famed “to be or not to be” soliloquy, Charles interrupted them on stage to school them with his own interpretation. [_This_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/24/prince-charles-hamlet-benedict-cumberbatch-judi-dench)[ _article originally appeared on EW.com_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/24/prince-charles-hamlet-benedict-cumberbatch-judi-dench) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4306232/watch-prince-charles-recite-hamlet-with-benedict-cumberbatch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4306232/watch-prince-charles-recite-hamlet-with-benedict-cumberbatch/"},"headline":"Watch Prince Charles Recite Hamlet With Benedict Cumberbatch","datePublished":"2016-04-25T11:20:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:59:56.819Z","description":"The Prince also shared the stage with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and David Tennant","url":"https://time.com/4306232/watch-prince-charles-recite-hamlet-with-benedict-cumberbatch/","keywords":["drama"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Devan Coggan/Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/drama/","name":"drama"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4306232/watch-prince-charles-recite-hamlet-with-benedict-cumberbatch/","name":"Watch Prince Charles Recite Hamlet With Benedict Cumberbatch"}}]}] ```