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NO ONE TELLS OPHELIA that Hamlet killed her father (Ophelia Postlude)

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Ophelia and Laertes know their father’s burial was abbreviated and secretive [1]. Claudius says, For good Polonius’ death, and we have done but greenly In hugger-mugger to inter him… [2] Claudius confides in Laertes that Hamlet killed his father [3]: This suits his purposes, to enlist the help of Laertes to kill Hamlet without Claudius revealing that he killed his brother, the king. But Claudius does not reveal to Ophelia how her father died. While he confides in Laertes, Ophelia is drowning [4]. There is no scene in Hamlet in which a character tells Ophelia that Hamlet killed her father. None. No character refers to Ophelia having been told, or knowing it, or finding out via gossip from Elsinore guards or servants. This may *not* be a small point: It is one thing to assume that Ophelia should be defined mostly by her familial and romantic relationships, and to have gone mad merely because of them. Yet it is very different for her to be defined by political awakenings, to have - lov...
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Painting of John the Baptist in Shakespeare's schoolroom

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On Instagram, ShakespearesSchoolroom notes, "during the restoration of Shakespeare’s Schoolroom & Guildhall in 2016 a rare medieval wall painting was uncovered. Identified by experts as John the Baptiste..." [1]. Interesting to think of a young Shakespeare perhaps seeing that and other paintings of the prophet, and later naming the player queen in Hamlet as "Baptista," after the prophet who condemned the marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother's divorced wife. Also, when Jesus goes to be baptized by John at the Jordan River, John says to Jesus, *you* should be baptizing *me* - but Jesus replies, "Let be." Famous line also in Hamlet, and in Paul McCartney's song catalog. In some of the old variorum Shakespeare editions, some editors resisted the idea that "Baptista" was an allusion to John the Baptist, claiming it was merely a common female name, but Joseph Ritson (1752-1803) held his ground and said it was. Good for him. Even centuri...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Hamlet-Claudius, Romulus-Remus, Cain-Abel

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Last week I posted [1] about a 1948 journal article by E. G. Berry [2], arguing that Shakespeare’s Hamlet resembled Roman Emperor, Claudius I. [3]. Berry argued that these resemblances are stronger in Shakespeare than in the 1200 A.D. source story from Saxo Grammaticus. What Berry doesn’t emphasize, but makes clear: 1. Saxo did not fashion his prince as a mirror image of his murderous uncle, although Amleth does resemble aspects of Claudius I. No similarity between prince and uncle is emphasized by Saxo. 2. By naming the uncle “Claudius,” Shakespeare invites audiences to view the prince and uncle in a radically revised relationship. Instead of a simple opposition between hero and villain, by changing the uncle’s name from “Feng” to “Claudius,” Shakespeare creates a new mirror effect between the two that was not present in Saxo’s older source tale. By pointing to Claudius I, Shakespeare points to Rome, which has an origin story involving a twin, Romulus, who kills his brother Remus [4...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Hamlet and Claudius I as nearly mirror images (Part 10, Claudius series)

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CLAUDIUS I, EMPEROR OF ROME, IS IN MANY WAYS A MIRROR IMAGE OF HAMLET, making “Claudius” a fascinating name choice for Hamlet’s uncle. In 1948, E. G. Berry explained this, drawing on Suetonius [1]: Claudius, like Hamlet, pretended to be mad or stupid as a survival strategy (74). [2] “Like Hamlet, Claudius is delayed and obstructed in his coming to his rightful authority [...]; Claudius has to remain in a state of pupillage to a late age, kept in that state by his uncle Tiberius, and Hamlet [...] spent a longer time than usual at Wittenberg and then [...] is detained a virtual prisoner by his uncle Claudius.” (76) Hamlet’s “extraordinarily loose, even obscene language in addressing Ophelia in III, i  and in the play scene” resembles Suetonius’ description of Claudius’ behaviors. (76) “In [...] ability and scholarship there is [...] likeness between Hamlet the scholar and the talented and scholarly Claudius. [...] denied authority and recognition by the usurping emperor.” (76-77) “...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Claudius I, Incestuous and Poisoned (Part 9, Claudius series)

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Claudius I (reigning 41-53 AD) married his niece [1], which in Shakespeare’s time would have been considered incestuous. The same niece and wife later allegedly poisoned him [2]. During “The Mousetrap,” while the court views the playlet about a poisoned king, Hamlet says the poisoner is “nephew to the king” [3]. Instead of merely catching his uncle’s conscience, Hamlet makes a veiled threat upon the life of Claudius. [4]. INCEST, ANTI-TRANSCENDENCE, CANNIBALISM: In Shakespeare, incest has more than literal meanings: Monarchs who marry too close a familial relation may fear they must defend their throne from outsiders (so foreigners and strangers may not be welcome, contrary to biblical mandate). Fear and self-concern become more important than more healthy and transcendent concerns. Incest also took on great importance as the reason Henry VIII gave for seeking a divorce from his first wife [5]. In Pericles, Shakespeare will later pair cannibalism (traditionally and metaphorically) ...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Beloved Boudica, Contemptible Claudius, Elizabethan Analogies (Part 8, Claudius series)

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“CLAUDIUS” WAS NOT A NEUTRAL NAME in Shakespeare’s England, nor was the fact that Claudius I of Rome had invaded England with elephants in 43 AD [1]. By the time Shakespeare’s first and second quartos of Hamlet were published (1603-4), two Roman Catholic popes had excommunicated Elizabeth (Pius V, 1570; Sixtus V, 1588) and openly encouraged her assassination. Rome also supported three Spanish Armada’s attempts to invade England during her reign (1588-1597). All of this colored England’s views of Roman history and of native resistance, such as that of Boudica [2], sometimes called “Queen of the Iceni” tribe, who led a rebellion against Roman occupiers slightly less than two decades after the invasion of Claudius. When her husband, King Prasutagus died, Boudica was flogged and her daughters were raped. Killing as many as 80,000, Boudica’s revolt destroyed a settlement of Roman military veterans at Camulodunum (now Colchester), where a large and expensive temple to Claudius I was locate...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Hamlet as Jonah desiring Nineveh's destruction instead of repentance (Jonah Postlude)

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HAMLET OBSERVING CLAUDIUS AT PRAYER IN 3.3 ACTS LIKE A VENGEFUL JONAH, according to Dennis Taylor’s recent book [1]: After Jonah delivers prophecy to Nineveh and they repent [2], Jonah is ungrateful for the gourd plant that God makes spring up to give him shade, and disappointed: He’d hoped to witness Nineveh’s destruction [3]. Hamlet is similarly disappointed to find Claudius at prayer and perhaps repenting (or trying to [4]). Jonah lacks mercy and wants to be an instrument of God's vengeance; before his sea-voyage, a "distracted" Hamlet is perhaps made mad by the desire for revenge, killing Polonius mistakenly [5], declaring that all his thoughts should be bloody or "nothing worth" [6], similarly dedicated (for a time) to being an instrument of vengeance. But in Hamlet “the time is out of joint” [7]: - Jonah first embarks on his sea-voyage and then changes mode of transport mid-sea for his ride in a fish’s belly; only later, when Nineveh repents, does he sul...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Claudius Ptolemy and Hamlet (Part 7, Claudius series)

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Some might think I missed a comma and that this post is about three people: Hamlet, his uncle Claudius, and Ptolemy, the astronomer. But in fact, the astronomer was a Roman citizen with “Claudius” as part of his name. What does this have to do with Shakespeare’s Danish tragedy? Ptolemy (circa 100 – 170 AD) was on the wrong side of science from an Elizabethan point of view. He thought that the earth was at the center, and that the sun and other heavenly objects went around the earth. About 350 years before Ptolemy, Aristarchus of Samos (310 – 230 BC) had said that the sun was at the center, but that idea didn’t catch on until the likes of Copernicus (1473 – 1543) and others. Certain passages in the Bible claimed that the sun moved, so the church was slow to endorse the Copernican paradigm. When Polonius reads Hamlet’s love letter to Ophelia, it includes the lines, Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love. (2.2.124-12...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Hamlet, Chaucer's Appius Claudius, and the Corrupt Judge of Luke 18 (Part 6, Claudius Series)

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HAMLET, CHAUCER'S APPIUS CLAUDIUS, AND THE CORRUPT JUDGE OF LUKE 18 (PART 6) In a previous post [1], I explored how Chaucer’s story, “The Physician’s Tale” may have been a key factor among many literary and historical reasons for Shakespeare renaming Hamlet’s uncle Feng as “Claudius” [2]. Chaucer’s tale has two villains named Claudius, and a female object of exploitation who escapes dishonor by means like suicide (or father- required sacrifice, similar to Iphigenia, or the Jephthah theme in Hamlet [3]). The Chaucer story suggests a gospel connection. In “The Physician’s Tale,” the main villain, Appius Claudius, is no average villain: He is a corrupt judge. Why does this matter? An allusion to a tale of a corrupt judge would make many Bible-literate Elizabethans [4] think of Luke 18:1-8, where Jesus tells of a widow who is wronged, and for whom justice is delayed by a corrupt judge [5]. (Elizabethans were required to attend church once a week, and if they attended morning prayer...
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Location: Northfield, MN 55057, USA
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Not a hair on his head but 'tis a Valentine

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“...there's not a hair on [his] head but 'tis a Valentine.” Two Gentlemen of Verona (3.1.195-195) This line is spoken about Valentine, one of the two main characters in the play. Two Gentlemen of Verona is an early Shakespeare play based on a Spanish source among others. It also contains many elements that show up in his later plays: - A woman (Julia) disguised as a man (Sebastian), an element also found in Twelfth Night , As You Like It , The Merchant of Venice , and Cymbeline ; - A character who (sometimes) goes by the name Sebastian (as in Twelfth Night ); - Talk of a couple eloping with a rope ladder (sort of like Romeo and Juliet ); - Couples escaping to the woods (also a theme in As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream ). - A resolved love triangle: Proteus who had been engaged to Julie thinks he is in love with Silvia (similar to Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , who had been in love with Helena, but who thinks he loves Hermia, and Hermia’s love, Lysande...
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