HAMLET’S “LET BE” DOESN’T QUOTE #TheBeatles

In Hamlet 5.2 (Q2), the prince tells Horatio, “Let be,” accepting the danger of the duel. Some may consider Hamlet’s “Let be” an allusion to the words Mary, mother of Jesus, speaks to the angel Gabriel, who tells her she will bear a son. And certainly, there is a strong thematic connection.

But in both the Bishop’s (church) bible and the Geneva (home) #translation, Mary’s words are “be it unto me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38). Close, but no "let".

Yet in Shakespeare’s (prefered) Geneva bible, when Jesus seeks to be baptized by John, at first, John protests, saying it should be Jesus baptizing *him.*

Jesus replies, “Let be now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3:15).

Common theme: acceptance of divine will, of the great “I am who am” (another form of "be").

But it’s interesting to note that Shakespeare may have been alluding (yet again) to John the Baptist, who disapproved of King Herod Antipas’s marriage to his brother’s wife. Hamlet, too, disapproves of the marriage of his uncle Claudius to a brother’s wife. It also alludes to Henry VIII and the “Great Matter” of his desired annulment of his marriage to his first wife (his brother's widow), which precipitated the English church’s break from Rome.



"Bautismo de Cristo" (The Baptism of Christ)
Ca. 1567
NAVARRETE "EL MUDO", JUAN FERNÁNDEZ
MUSEO DEL PRADO
Source: Wikipedia
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[Originally posted around the week of 11/12/18
on LinkedIn]
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Links to a description of my book project:
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