Coroner's Drowning Inquest as "Crowner's Quest" in Hamlet
In David Bevington's book Murder Most Foul: Hamlet Through the Ages, Bevington includes the following parenthetical observation regarding suicides:
The general logic is that suicide is self-murder, and murder violates one of the ten commandments ("thou shalt not kill"), so a suicide (or even an attempted suicide) is therefore a criminal, and the lands and property of such criminals are forfeit to the crown.
LARGER CONTEXTS OF THE GRAVEYARD SCENE
I have blogged before about Ophelia's death as a privileged one, about Gertrude's account that seems to assert the blame was not to be placed on Ophelia going to the water, but on a jealous branch that broke, sending her into the water, and on her waterlogged clothing dragging her down.
I've also blogged about the religious implications of the play's handling of her death as a potential suicide, with Laertes calling the priest "churlish" or selfish and nit-picking rather than compassionate for not offering more ceremony; if it's unclear whether a person committed suicide, or whether such a person was mad, why assume we can judge the eternal fate of another? One of Shakespeare's favorite scripture passages was the passage about taking the plank out of one's own eye before taking the speck or mote of dust out of another person's eye, for the measure we use to judge others will be used against us. Measure for Measure points to this bible passage in its title, and Horatio's comment in 1.1, "A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye," also points to the same passage.
[Image Source: Placerville, California Mountain Democrat: Actors Dan Frezza, left, and Dan Kremer portray clowns and gravediggers in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Hamlet. Photo: Karl Hugh. Summer, 2013, Utah Shakespeare Festival.]
CORONER V. CROWNER
Banter between the first and second clown at the grave in 5.1 opens the scene and includes the following:
This passage is rich: "The crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial." Certainly the death of Ophelia is a shocking and sad event, and yet "the crowner" (coroner) "sat on her."
The same joke, with a "crowner" sitting on someone, turns up also in Twelfth Night, as noted in this 2011 post by another blogger (here).
The "crowner...finds it Christian burial." The coroner seems to be doing the bidding of the throne, against suspicion by some, including the priest, that it may have been a suicide.
If the coroner often does the bidding of the crown by judging such deaths to be suicides, and having the estates go to enrich the crown, at least in this case in the play, Shakespeare may be playing it careful by exonerating the crown of any fault, and placing the blame on the coroner instead. Only the "churlish priest" is criticized.
And yet, in the play, there has already been theft of land and property through Claudius usurping his brother's throne, and perhaps earlier, when King Hamlet killed Old Fortinbras.
But then, note the joke in the wordplay: The coroner is not a coroner whose main job is to best determine the cause of death, but instead, has been transformed into a crowner, one who "makes" people kings and queens by crowning them - perhaps with property and riches. People often become kings and queens in a Machiavellian sense by way of how they enrich themselves in corrupt ways, such as pressuring coroners not to serve the truth, to avoid assuming they can pluck the mystery of some deaths, but rather, to find more questionable deaths as suicides so as to benefit the crown.
The crown thereby becomes "A cutpurse of the empire and the rule" as Hamlet calls Claudius to his mother in 3.4, in the closet scene. "Cutpurse" was also a way to view Henry VIII, who had dissolved all of the convents and monasteries in England and confiscated their lands, yet still left England with debts after his death, with wasteful spending and wars.
RICH & FAMOUS: GO AHEAD AND KILL YOURSELVES
Later in the same graveyard scene (5.1), there is excellent joking about the rich:
LIKE LAZARUS & THE RICH MAN
This passage comes close to saying: More of these great folk might do us the favor, then, of drowning or hanging themselves, and pretending they will go to heaven - like the rich man in the gospel story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus (referenced elsewhere in the play) might like to think - perhaps only to find that they'll be going to hell instead.
CRITICAL OF RELIGION & POLITICS/CROWN
Shakespeare gives us a glimpse not only of a religion that nit-picks in judging the dead and plucking the heart of their mysteries, to paraphrase, Hamlet, but also sometimes withholds certain rituals that might add comfort for the surviving family and friends. Stephen Greenblatt notes in Hamlet in Purgatory that this was the case of many in England after the English reformation, common people who took comfort from certain (Roman Catholic) religious rituals, but were denied these by Protestant monarchs.
Furthermore, if Bevington is right, the graveyard scene also points to how the crown's pressure on coroners may have wrongly distorted the work of coroners and of ministers of the church, as well as caused hardship and suffering for average people in England. And yet it accomplishes all of this in ways that seem at turns understated, and at others, in-your-face with humor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over any other, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
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
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
Bevington died last summer in his late 80s, and the book was first published in 2011 when he was about 80. On this point in the parenthetical above, there is no footnote, no mention in the end notes. (If this is a commonly-known understanding, and if many other sources confirm it, and if you are aware of some of those, please let me know).
(Coroners in Shakespeare's day were instructed to issue of suicide in such dubious cases, partly because swimming was regarded as reckless self-endangerment and thus virtually a suicidal act, but more importantly because the estate of the deceased would then go to the crown.) (60)
The general logic is that suicide is self-murder, and murder violates one of the ten commandments ("thou shalt not kill"), so a suicide (or even an attempted suicide) is therefore a criminal, and the lands and property of such criminals are forfeit to the crown.
LARGER CONTEXTS OF THE GRAVEYARD SCENE
I have blogged before about Ophelia's death as a privileged one, about Gertrude's account that seems to assert the blame was not to be placed on Ophelia going to the water, but on a jealous branch that broke, sending her into the water, and on her waterlogged clothing dragging her down.
I've also blogged about the religious implications of the play's handling of her death as a potential suicide, with Laertes calling the priest "churlish" or selfish and nit-picking rather than compassionate for not offering more ceremony; if it's unclear whether a person committed suicide, or whether such a person was mad, why assume we can judge the eternal fate of another? One of Shakespeare's favorite scripture passages was the passage about taking the plank out of one's own eye before taking the speck or mote of dust out of another person's eye, for the measure we use to judge others will be used against us. Measure for Measure points to this bible passage in its title, and Horatio's comment in 1.1, "A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye," also points to the same passage.
[Image Source: Placerville, California Mountain Democrat: Actors Dan Frezza, left, and Dan Kremer portray clowns and gravediggers in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Hamlet. Photo: Karl Hugh. Summer, 2013, Utah Shakespeare Festival.]
CORONER V. CROWNER
Banter between the first and second clown at the grave in 5.1 opens the scene and includes the following:
Enter two Clowns [with spades and mattocks].
Clown
Is she to be buried in Christian burial, that willfully seeks her own salvation?
Other
I tell thee she is, and therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.
Clown
How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense?
Other
Why, 'tis found so.
Clown
It must be se offendendo, it cannot be else, for here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches: it is to act, to do, and to perform. Argal, she drowned herself wittingly.
Other
Nay, but hear you, Goodman Delver.
Clown
Give me leave. Here lies the water; good. Here stands the man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes. Mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
Other
But is this law?
Clown
Ay, marry, is't, crowner's quest law.
This passage is rich: "The crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial." Certainly the death of Ophelia is a shocking and sad event, and yet "the crowner" (coroner) "sat on her."
The same joke, with a "crowner" sitting on someone, turns up also in Twelfth Night, as noted in this 2011 post by another blogger (here).
The "crowner...finds it Christian burial." The coroner seems to be doing the bidding of the throne, against suspicion by some, including the priest, that it may have been a suicide.
If the coroner often does the bidding of the crown by judging such deaths to be suicides, and having the estates go to enrich the crown, at least in this case in the play, Shakespeare may be playing it careful by exonerating the crown of any fault, and placing the blame on the coroner instead. Only the "churlish priest" is criticized.
And yet, in the play, there has already been theft of land and property through Claudius usurping his brother's throne, and perhaps earlier, when King Hamlet killed Old Fortinbras.
But then, note the joke in the wordplay: The coroner is not a coroner whose main job is to best determine the cause of death, but instead, has been transformed into a crowner, one who "makes" people kings and queens by crowning them - perhaps with property and riches. People often become kings and queens in a Machiavellian sense by way of how they enrich themselves in corrupt ways, such as pressuring coroners not to serve the truth, to avoid assuming they can pluck the mystery of some deaths, but rather, to find more questionable deaths as suicides so as to benefit the crown.
The crown thereby becomes "A cutpurse of the empire and the rule" as Hamlet calls Claudius to his mother in 3.4, in the closet scene. "Cutpurse" was also a way to view Henry VIII, who had dissolved all of the convents and monasteries in England and confiscated their lands, yet still left England with debts after his death, with wasteful spending and wars.
RICH & FAMOUS: GO AHEAD AND KILL YOURSELVES
Later in the same graveyard scene (5.1), there is excellent joking about the rich:
Other
Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o'Christian burial.
In other words, a pity that great folk are more free to drown or hang themselves and still get Christian burial, unlike less famous, less wealthy Christians.ClownWhy, there thou say'st, and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christian.
LIKE LAZARUS & THE RICH MAN
This passage comes close to saying: More of these great folk might do us the favor, then, of drowning or hanging themselves, and pretending they will go to heaven - like the rich man in the gospel story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus (referenced elsewhere in the play) might like to think - perhaps only to find that they'll be going to hell instead.
CRITICAL OF RELIGION & POLITICS/CROWN
Shakespeare gives us a glimpse not only of a religion that nit-picks in judging the dead and plucking the heart of their mysteries, to paraphrase, Hamlet, but also sometimes withholds certain rituals that might add comfort for the surviving family and friends. Stephen Greenblatt notes in Hamlet in Purgatory that this was the case of many in England after the English reformation, common people who took comfort from certain (Roman Catholic) religious rituals, but were denied these by Protestant monarchs.
Furthermore, if Bevington is right, the graveyard scene also points to how the crown's pressure on coroners may have wrongly distorted the work of coroners and of ministers of the church, as well as caused hardship and suffering for average people in England. And yet it accomplishes all of this in ways that seem at turns understated, and at others, in-your-face with humor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over any other, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
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
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
Dr. Fried,
ReplyDeleteIn the Torah, 'Thou shalt not kill" reads in Hebrew as "Thou shall not murder." Also, Jews who commit suicide cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery. In Judaism, there is a distinct difference between "kill" and murder and self-murder. Suicide, in the Talmud, is a sin and there is a law defining 'murder,' 'kill' and suicide. I'm certain that Shakespeare was aware of Jewish law and rituals. So, how does this information relate to 'Hamlet'? You quote the two clowns and you capture it in the LIKE LAZARUS & THE RICH MAN section.
Interesting, Michael. I assumed as much about Jewish law, but was uncertain how familiar Shakespeare may have been with it. Because (most) Jews were expelled from England centuries earlier, I assumed his familiarity may have been limited, and by way of popular reading of the Hebrew "Old Testament" scriptures included in the Christian Bible.
DeleteThe Hebrew scriptures make it a point to emphasize care for orphans and widows. But it's unclear how much mercy the crown may have shown toward them if a father and husband, who was also a property owner, committed suicide. Did the crown take the suicide's property even if a widow and children depended in part on these? More research needed, if I want to explore that rabbit hole....