ELIZABETH I & HAMLET

Elizabeth, who often referred to herself as a "prince":
"I may not be a lion, but I am a lion's cub, and I have a lion's heart."

Like Hamlet, Elizabeth I was (figuratively) haunted by her father: Henry VIII broke from Rome to obtain an annulment from his first wife so that he could marry Elizabeth’s mother Anne;
he later had Anne executed (on trumped-up charges? Bored with her, tired of her assertiveness, already courting a replacement).

Called by some a "bastard queen," conceived before her parents' marriage, Elizabeth spoke highly of her father in public but wore a locket with her mother’s picture.

Laertes says that if he doesn’t avenge his father, he proclaims himself bastard.
- If Elizabeth didn’t adhere to her father’s separation from Rome, she would have proclaimed herself bastard: her legitimacy depended to some extent on her father’s break from Rome to get his first marriage annulled.

Hamlet says to Ophelia, “we will have no more marriages”: He is disgusted with the sins of his mother and uncle, and even his own fleshy existence.
Elizabeth’s reluctance to marry is often explained as if she merely feared childbirth or a problematic husband—
yet is Hamlet an idealized Elizabeth, haunted by his parents’ legacy, disgusted with his own flesh and the idea of marriage?



The picture, a painting of Elizabeth I, is by George Gower (1579, public domain). It portrays her as a vestal virgin: "depicted with a sieve in her left hand. The sieve alludes to the myth of Tuccia, a roman Vestal Virgin who proved her virginity by carrying water with a sieve."
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[Originally posted around the week of 12/17/18
on LinkedIn]
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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
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#Shakespeare #Bible #Hamlet #Literature #LiteraryCriticism #Drama #Theatre #EarlyModern #religion #Renaissance #EnglishLiterature