HAMLET AS SERVANT-PRINCE: A PARAPHRASED & OFTEN-MISSED BIBLE ALLUSION
HAMLET AS SERVANT-PRINCE: A PARAPHRASED & OFTEN-MISSED BIBLE ALLUSION:
Hamlet: I am glad to see you well. Horatio! - or I do forget myself.
Horatio: The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
Hamlet: Sir, my good friend - I'll change that name with you.
Four key Shakespeare & the Bible scholars missed this, while Peter Milward (on the tragedies) caught it:
Hamlet says he would be his friend Horatio’s “poor servant,” not the other way around.
This alludes to multiple gospel passages in which Jesus says that if you would be greatest, you must be servant of all (Matt 20:26; Mark 9:35; Luke 22:26) and that Jesus won’t call his disciples servants any longer, but friends (John 15:15), and he washes their feet to demonstrate such service (John 13:1-9).
[IMAGE: Dirck van Baburen (circa 1594/1595–1624) / Christ Washing the Apostles Feet / circa 1616 / Public domain via Wikipedia.]
Why does it matter? Along with Hamlet’s scolding of Polonius for his judgmental and inhospitable treatment of the players, this shows Hamlet with positive service/leadership qualities before he is tempted toward revenge and bloody thoughts by the ghost of his father. Many audience members, for whom bible reading was popular and church attendance mandatory, would have caught this allusion.
Some readers and audience members may assume that all the worst qualities that come out in the prince later - being mean to Ophelia, killing her father thinking it's Claudius behind the arras, sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths - that these all display the "true" core of Hamlet's being, and then assume he has no character arc.
But if we recognize his aspiration to be a servant-prince early in the play, this helps us recognize that he starts high, then undergoes a spiritual descent, then perhaps has a turn somewhere around the time his is shown mercy by pirates, and talks with a gravedigger who used to be a drinking buddy of Yorick.
He still argues with Laertes over who loved Ophelia more, which is not Hamlet at his best, but he is starting his re-assent and becoming again something more of a servant-prince.
If we care what Shakespeare was trying to elicit from his original audience, it matters.
Links to a description of my book project:
On LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/eJGBtqV
On this blog: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/05/hamlets-bible-my-book-project-im.html
[Originally posted around the week of 5/29/17 on LinkedIn]
Hamlet: I am glad to see you well. Horatio! - or I do forget myself.
Horatio: The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
Hamlet: Sir, my good friend - I'll change that name with you.
Four key Shakespeare & the Bible scholars missed this, while Peter Milward (on the tragedies) caught it:
Hamlet says he would be his friend Horatio’s “poor servant,” not the other way around.
This alludes to multiple gospel passages in which Jesus says that if you would be greatest, you must be servant of all (Matt 20:26; Mark 9:35; Luke 22:26) and that Jesus won’t call his disciples servants any longer, but friends (John 15:15), and he washes their feet to demonstrate such service (John 13:1-9).
Why does it matter? Along with Hamlet’s scolding of Polonius for his judgmental and inhospitable treatment of the players, this shows Hamlet with positive service/leadership qualities before he is tempted toward revenge and bloody thoughts by the ghost of his father. Many audience members, for whom bible reading was popular and church attendance mandatory, would have caught this allusion.
Some readers and audience members may assume that all the worst qualities that come out in the prince later - being mean to Ophelia, killing her father thinking it's Claudius behind the arras, sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths - that these all display the "true" core of Hamlet's being, and then assume he has no character arc.
But if we recognize his aspiration to be a servant-prince early in the play, this helps us recognize that he starts high, then undergoes a spiritual descent, then perhaps has a turn somewhere around the time his is shown mercy by pirates, and talks with a gravedigger who used to be a drinking buddy of Yorick.
He still argues with Laertes over who loved Ophelia more, which is not Hamlet at his best, but he is starting his re-assent and becoming again something more of a servant-prince.
If we care what Shakespeare was trying to elicit from his original audience, it matters.
Links to a description of my book project:
On LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/eJGBtqV
On this blog: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/05/hamlets-bible-my-book-project-im.html
[Originally posted around the week of 5/29/17 on LinkedIn]
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