THE GHOST OF VERONICA HAUNTS HAMLET [or, did Gertrude have a Veronica complex?]
In his book, “Images of Christ in Art,” British art historian and museum director Robert Neil Macgregor notes that from 1200 CE on, “wherever the Roman Church went, the Veronica would go with it."
In legend, after St. Veronica wiped the face of Jesus on his way to crucifixion, the image of Christ’s face (“the Veronica”) remained on the cloth. Her act later became part of the stations of the cross ritual in Roman Catholic and English churches.
Note: In the Christian legend,
Jesus is doing
strenuous physical activity of cross-carrying
when a woman, Veronica, wipes his face
as he goes to his death;
in Hamlet 5.2, the prince is doing
strenuous physical activity of a fencing match
when a woman, Gertrude, wipes his face
as he goes to his death:
GERTRUDE: He's fat, and scant of breath.
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows
[….] / Come, let me wipe thy face.
What was the Bard thinking?
Not that Gertrude = Veronica, but that Shakespeare, immersed in his culture’s religious heritage, included this parallel detail which may heighten our sense of Hamlet’s transformation and ending role as kind of repentant sinner and Christ-figure.
[PS Also, we might note that in the legend, there is a product,
a relic that is still in existence for pilgrims to go see,
perhaps increasing the pilgrim industry (Chaucer would find stuff to parody in that).
But Gertrude's wiping of Hamlet's face results in no cloth with an image of Hamlet;
instead, the play's the thing, and in the play, Horatio, to tell Hamlet's story
and convey the message to a new kind of pilgrim—one that attends the theatre.]
P.S. 2-12-2019: I found another scholar who touches briefly on the Veronica theme in the last scene of Hamlet:
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Hamlet and the Image of Both Churches
David Kaula
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
Vol. 24, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1984), pp. 241-255
Image: Lorenzo Costa, 1508, Louvre
[More in comments]
1/7/19
https://tinyurl.com/HamGerVer
#Shakespeare #Hamlet #EarlyModern #Bible #Renaissance #Theater #Drama #Literature #EnglishLiterature
Also posted on LinkedIn
In legend, after St. Veronica wiped the face of Jesus on his way to crucifixion, the image of Christ’s face (“the Veronica”) remained on the cloth. Her act later became part of the stations of the cross ritual in Roman Catholic and English churches.
Note: In the Christian legend,
Jesus is doing
strenuous physical activity of cross-carrying
when a woman, Veronica, wipes his face
as he goes to his death;
in Hamlet 5.2, the prince is doing
strenuous physical activity of a fencing match
when a woman, Gertrude, wipes his face
as he goes to his death:
GERTRUDE: He's fat, and scant of breath.
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows
[….] / Come, let me wipe thy face.
What was the Bard thinking?
Not that Gertrude = Veronica, but that Shakespeare, immersed in his culture’s religious heritage, included this parallel detail which may heighten our sense of Hamlet’s transformation and ending role as kind of repentant sinner and Christ-figure.
[PS Also, we might note that in the legend, there is a product,
a relic that is still in existence for pilgrims to go see,
perhaps increasing the pilgrim industry (Chaucer would find stuff to parody in that).
But Gertrude's wiping of Hamlet's face results in no cloth with an image of Hamlet;
instead, the play's the thing, and in the play, Horatio, to tell Hamlet's story
and convey the message to a new kind of pilgrim—one that attends the theatre.]
P.S. 2-12-2019: I found another scholar who touches briefly on the Veronica theme in the last scene of Hamlet:
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Hamlet and the Image of Both Churches
David Kaula
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
Vol. 24, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1984), pp. 241-255
Image: Lorenzo Costa, 1508, Louvre
[More in comments]
1/7/19
https://tinyurl.com/HamGerVer
#Shakespeare #Hamlet #EarlyModern #Bible #Renaissance #Theater #Drama #Literature #EnglishLiterature
Also posted on LinkedIn
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