New Series: Lazarus & Dives (the Rich Man) in Hamlet (Part 1)
When the ghost in Shakespeare's Hamlet says that the poison made his skin "Most lazarlike with vile and loathsome crust, / All my smooth body" (1.5.757-8), the worst thing a viewer or reader can do is to assume (perhaps after reading a footnote) that "lazarlike" is meant to convey only something about the physical effect on his skin, and nothing more.
In the biblical parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the skin of the beggar Lazarus was covered by sores that were licked by dogs. A "lazar-house" was a name for a place where people with skin afflictions like leprosy. HistoricEngland.org notes that "At least 320 religious houses and hospitals for the care of lepers (known as leper or 'lazar' houses) were established in England between the end of the 11th century and 1350," and also describes a once-popular belief that lepers would go straight to heaven, because their suffering of leprosy was a kind of purgatory on earth.
[St. Mary Magdalen Stourbridge near Cambridge © IoE Miss Alexis Keech. Source Historic England Archive IOE01/05399/20. Fair use. This former lazar-house was about as far east of Shakespeare's home in Stratford-Upon-Avon as London was south-east.]
[Bartlemas Chapel, Oxford, was once part of a Leper House, and is about half-way from Stratford-Upon-Avon to London. Image by Motacilla, via Wikipedia. Creative Commons license, fair use.]
Three years ago (8 January, 2018) I posted a list of moments or aspects in Shakespeare's Hamlet that alluded to, or echoed, aspects of the gospel parable usually called "The Rich Man and Lazarus." In that post, I noted the following:
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In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there are allusions to the bible story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man (“Dives”) from Luke 16:19-31, read every First Sunday After Trinity Sunday, and also read every 5 March, 4 July, and every 30 October as the second lesson for Morning prayer.
It is as if the playwright took parts of that story, diced them up, and sprinkled them throughout:
1. The Ghost (1.5) says his skin became “Lazar-like” from poison;
Lazarus had skin-sores, which dogs licked.
[Edit 9/11/2023: The ghost also says that his brother Claudius, in the “..porches of mine ear didst pour the leperous distillment” - in some paintings and illustrations of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the beggar Lazarus, the leper, is left outside, untended on the porches of the rich man’s house.]
2. The rich man asks if Lazarus can return to life to warn the rich man's brothers;
the ghost claims to be sent to warn and give Hamlet a task;
Ophelia (2.1) describes Hamlet visiting as if “loosed out of hell.”
3. Hamlet tells Polonius to be sure the players are well-bestowed (2.2.1563-73),
like telling the rich man to be sure to be generous with the beggar Lazarus.
4. Hamlet (4.3) tells Claudius of kings and beggars (like Dives & Lazarus).
5. Ophelia (4.5) mentions, “the owl was a baker’s daughter,”
a tale of a (Lazarus-like) beggar and a (bread-rich) baker (a tragic version of the Emmaus story: the beggar/stranger is rejected, not welcomed).
6. Laertes (5.1) tells the “churlish” priest that his sister will be in heaven (like Lazarus with Abraham), while the priest “liest howling” (like the rich man, looking up from hell to see Lazarus).
7. After Hamlet dies (5.2), Horatio says “angels sing thee to thy rest,” referring to the requiem mass, which ended with a prayer based on the Lazarus tale, with angels escorting the dead to Abraham in heaven.
8. More than any other character, Hamlet describes himself or is described by others as "poor" or "beggar" or "begging." He may also have been like a beggar for his father's affection, but received fatherly affection instead from Yorick. Claudius and Gertrude are among those who are rich in something withheld from Hamlet, but Hamlet also begs of his former friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and they are slow to be generous with him.
How might this recognition affect our reading of the play?
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The more I have thought about these allusions or echoes of the parable, the more I realized that I had only taken some first steps by identifying their presence in the play. I did not attempt an in-depth analysis of most of the occurrences of the allusions or echoes, and I didn't consider the larger significance of what it may have meant for Shakespeare to write a play that included these allusions or echoes at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I.
So my next series of posts will deal more closely with allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet related to Lazarus and the Rich Man, and also their significance in particular scenes as well as the play overall, and their significance in larger contexts.
The parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man seems to have had a social significance in the context of family homes, as it was sometimes painted on walls of homes. It was also portrayed in drawings and tapestries, as well as paintings of age and of earlier ages, and in carved stone on Cathedrals, such as that in Lincolnshire, England.
The parable also had liturgical-religious significance: In the Two Books of Homilies by Thomas Cranmer and John Jewell, we find that in the first book, homily IX, in the second part, it mentions both the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus, and also the good thief on the cross, crucified with Jesus. For some reason, Cranmer associates Lazarus with the Good Thief, although there is no mention in the Lazarus tale of his having been a thief, only a beggar. This same homily also describes death as arresting the Rich Man and Lazarus, a word Shakespeare places on the lips of Hamlet ("This fell sergeant, death is strict in his arrest"). Other Cranmer homilies also mention the tale of the beggar Lazarus, and these also have other connections to the play, Hamlet.
Although the medieval church sometimes assumed that the story had a historical basis, Martin Luther assumed that it was a parable, a ficton meant to convey a religious message. Protestant thinkers sometimes believed that the Rich Man was associated with the Sadducees or Pharisees, or that he stood for the high priest in Jerusalem, who had been corrupted by Rome and by the wealth that came from his position. the possible religious or theological significance, considering sermons or reformation theologians.
From a legal and social perspective, it will be helpful to consider Tudor and specifically Elizabethan laws relating to beggars and vagabonds, and that traveling companies of players were sometimes considered not much different from these (as some Shakespeare sources sometimes note, for example, in relation to Falstaff in the Henry IV plays).
I hope to break all of this down into logical sections so that my blog readers can digest it in small parts which, in the end, should make sense and give a better sense of the larger picture regarding this Biblical allusion and its significance.
The way I explore the potential of the Lazarus-Dives allusion and plot echoes will also illustrate a possible method for approaching other Biblical allusions in the play:
- They can be interpreted in a very local and restrictive way (as in this case, merely the skin of Lazarus),
- or as a broader allusive window (the ghost as Dives, changed places with Lazarus in an afterlife),
- or in application to other characters and moments in the play (the players? Poor Ophelia? Hamlet as "poor"?),
- as well as aspects of the larger historical significance of the allusion (lazar-houses, hospitals lost with the closure of monasteries, laws related to beggars and vagabonds).
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MORE TO COME: This is part 1 in a multi-part series on how the Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 can be a mirror to hold up to the play, or a lens through which to view various characters and scenes. There are a variety of beggar Lazarus figures, and people who are beggars in one scene might be something else in another. More to come.
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INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES on THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS:
See this link:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/index-series-on-rich-man-and-beggar.html
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Hamlet quotes: All quotes from Hamlet (in this particular series on The Rich Man and Lazarus in Hamlet) are taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.
Bible quotes from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
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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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