Shakespeare’s 100 Most-Spoken Characters

Shakespeare’s canon contains 714 indexed characters with at least 20 lines of dialogue. The top 100, ranked by exact line count, are listed below.

Top 100 Characters by Line Count

#	Character	Play	Lines
1	Hamlet	Hamlet	1,495
2	Iago	Othello	1,098
3	King Henry V	Henry V	1,029
4	Othello	Othello	887
5	Duke Vincentio	Measure for Measure	851
6	Mark Antony	Antony and Cleopatra	851
7	Timon	Timon of Athens	824
8	King Richard Ii	Richard II	758
9	King Lear	King Lear	752
10	Brutus	Julius Caesar	728
11	Titus Andronicus	Titus Andronicus	722
12	Macbeth	Macbeth	718
13	Falstaff	Henry IV, part 2	715
14	Gloucester	Richard III	698
15	Prospero	The Tempest	695
16	Leontes	Winter's Tale	692
17	Cleopatra	Antony and Cleopatra	686
18	Coriolanus	Coriolanus	680
19	Rosalind	As You Like It	677
20	Falstaff	Henry IV, part 1	616
21	Romeo	Romeo and Juliet	612
22	Pericles	Pericles, Prince of Tyre	609
23	Imogen	Cymbeline	605
24	Biron	Love's Labours Lost	599
25	Portia	The Merchant of Venice	589
26	Menenius	Coriolanus	589
27	Petruchio	Taming of the Shrew	587
28	Hotspur	Henry IV, part 1	562
29	Prince Henry	Henry IV, part 1	551
30	King Claudius	Hamlet	546
31	Juliet	Romeo and Juliet	544
32	Troilus	Troilus and Cressida	537
33	Cassius	Julius Caesar	525
34	Bastard	King John	523
35	Ulysses	Troilus and Cressida	488
36	King Henry Viii	Henry VIII	476
37	Helena	All's Well That Ends Well	473
38	King Richard Iii	Richard III	473
39	Proteus	Two Gentlemen of Verona	442
40	Posthumus Leonatus	Cymbeline	442
41	King John	King John	441
42	Cardinal Wolsey	Henry VIII	439
43	Warwick	Henry VI, part 3	435
44	Falstaff	The Merry Wives of Windsor	433
45	Benedick	Much Ado About Nothing	432
46	Iachimo	Cymbeline	430
47	Isabella	Measure for Measure	420
48	Octavius Caesar	Antony and Cleopatra	420
49	Talbot	Henry VI, part 1	416
50	Henry Bolingbroke	Richard II	413
51	Edgar	King Lear	395
52	Pandarus	Troilus and Cressida	394
53	Desdemona	Othello	388
54	King	All's Well That Ends Well	387
55	York	Henry VI, part 2	385
56	Valentine	Two Gentlemen of Verona	383
57	Kent	King Lear	369
58	Parolles	All's Well That Ends Well	365
59	Buckingham	Richard III	365
60	King Henry Vi	Henry VI, part 3	363
61	Domitius Enobarbus	Antony and Cleopatra	356
62	Aaron	Titus Andronicus	356
63	Shylock	The Merchant of Venice	355
64	Lord Polonius	Hamlet	355
65	Friar Laurence	Romeo and Juliet	351
66	Belarius	Cymbeline	346
67	Gloucester	King Lear	342
68	King Henry Iv	Henry IV, part 1	341
69	Paulina	Winter's Tale	340
70	Viola	Twelfth Night	337
71	Bassanio	The Merchant of Venice	336
72	Sir Toby Belch	Twelfth Night	332
73	Antony	Julius Caesar	329
74	Leonato	Much Ado About Nothing	328
75	King Henry Iv	Henry IV, part 2	323
76	Julia	Two Gentlemen of Verona	322
77	Angelo	Measure for Measure	321
78	Edmund	King Lear	319
79	Queen Margaret	Henry VI, part 2	317
80	King Henry Vi	Henry VI, part 2	315
81	Ferdinand	Love's Labours Lost	315
82	Dromio Of Syracuse	The Comedy of Errors	314
83	Volumnia	Coriolanus	314
84	Don Pedro	Much Ado About Nothing	313
85	Olivia	Twelfth Night	308
86	Clown	Twelfth Night	308
87	Gloucester	Henry VI, part 2	307
88	Mistress Page	The Merry Wives of Windsor	306
89	Ford	The Merry Wives of Windsor	305
90	Sicinius	Coriolanus	305
91	Lucio	Measure for Measure	302
92	Camillo	Winter's Tale	299
93	King Edward Iv	Henry VI, part 3	298
94	Orlando	As You Like It	297
95	Suffolk	Henry VI, part 2	297
96	Cymbeline	Cymbeline	296
97	Cressida	Troilus and Cressida	295
98	Autolycus	Winter's Tale	294
99	Tranio	Taming of the Shrew	293
100	Horatio	Hamlet	291

Role Sizes at a Glance

Biggest single role

The largest single role in Shakespeare’s corpus is Hamlet in Hamlet, with 1,495 lines.

Average indexed role

Across the 714 indexed characters, the average role size is about 478 lines.

Inclusion criterion

To keep the index focused, characters are only given a dedicated page once they have spoken at least 20 lines somewhere in the play. Smaller roles are still reflected in the line-count totals on each play page.

Frequently Asked

Who speaks the most lines in Shakespeare?

Hamlet in Hamlet is the single largest role in Shakespeare’s canon at 1,495 lines.

How many named characters are there?

714 named characters speak at least 20 lines across all of Shakespeare’s plays in this index.

Why aren’t tiny roles indexed?

Below the 20-line threshold, a role is usually too brief to support a dedicated profile. These smaller roles still contribute to each play’s character totals.