Character of Hamlet seen in his first speech, mainly (7)
I believe the answer is:
horatio
'character of hamlet' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'his first speech mainly' is the wordplay.
'his first' becomes 'h' (1st letter of 'his').
'speech' becomes 'oration' (oration is a kind of speech).
'mainly' means to remove the last letter (virtually or mainly the word, but not all of it).
'oration' with its final letter taken away is 'oratio'.
'h'+'oratio'='HORATIO'
'seen in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for horatio that I've seen before include "Nelson or Hornblower?" , "Hamlet''s friend - Nelson" , "part of Hamlet" , "Speaker of Good night, sweet prince (Hamlet)" , "- Nelson, British admiral" .)