INCESTUOUS, ADULTEROUS, MURDEROUS BEAST? (Henry VIII references in Hamlet)

What king of their recent memory would the earliest audiences for "Hamlet" have associated with that description?

Henry VIII:
Incestuous, he alleged, because he had second thoughts about having married the widow of his deceased older brother (as Claudius seems to have done). This was a key issue in the English Reformation. Adulterous, because Henry had affairs on the side while he was married to his various queens.

In another play of the period, "A Looking Glass for London," the prophet Jonah is sent to urge another incestuous king to repent.

Prophetic urging of a king to repent of incest and other sins may have been a double-edged sword: 1) it supports Henry's desired annulment from what he saw as an incestuous marriage. Yet 2) it's also a strong critique of Henry, a king with many sins.

But in Hamlet, the prince urges the queen, not the king, to repent. When Hamlet’s mother tells him (3.4) he has cleft her heart in twain, and he replies,
“throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half,”
he is paraphrasing Matt 5:29-30: If your eye offends you, pluck it out…if your right hand offends you, cut it off….
“better…that one of thy members perishe, [than] that thy whole body…be cast into hell.”

Instead of reading the gospel passage as a metaphor for ending personal vices, it reads Matt 5:29-30 as a metaphor for cutting off a husband and king: a significant twist!
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IMAGE: Portrait of Henry VIII - After Hans Holbein the Younger. Created after 1537. Public domain via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:After_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger_-_Portrait_of_Henry_VIII_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
MORE:
KING DAVID & OEDIPUS in HAMLET
On this blog: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/09/king-oedipus-king-david-hamlet-freud.html
On LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/eeBvjjS

HENRY VIII & KING DAVID in HAMLET
On this blog: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/09/king-oedipus-king-david-hamlet-freud.html
On LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/e97bdG4

HAMLET HAS A DAVID COMPLEX
On this blog: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/09/hamlet-has-david-complex-freud-claimed.html

INCESTUOUS, ADULTEROUS, MURDEROUS BEAST?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/03/incestuous-adulterous-murderous-beast.html


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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

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