Owl & Beggar Lazarus at Baker's Door in Hamlet 4.5 (part 11)
How Can an Owl Be a Baker’s Daughter?
Shakespeare offers a Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 (couched in a compound word, "lazar-like"). We find things analogous to rich men and beggars in earlier and later scenes (as shown in 1.3 with Ophelia, and in 2.2 with the players, among other such analogous moments).
An indirect allusion to the Lazarus tale also comes in 4.5, when Ophelia says,
"They say the owl was a baker's daughter." (4.5.2784) The connection of this statement to the Lazarus tale is easy to miss for audiences unfamiliar with the folktale of a beggar treated ungenerously by a baker's daughter.
In that tale, a baker is not literally a rich man, but at least rich in bread. When a beggar comes to the door, he readies dough to bake in order to feed the beggar, but after it rises, the daughter repeatedly tells him to make it smaller. He does, but each of three times, it rises even more.
The beggar in disguise was Jesus in some versions of the tale, or a fairy in others (in any case, some sort of supernatural being). In punishment for her lack of generosity, the daughter is changed into an owl, a death-omen.
Owls cry, "WHO?" as if to ask,
Who is really at the door?
Beggar, or a god in disguise?
First words in Hamlet: Who's there?
~~~ [Edit/addendum, 5 May, 2021: A connection on LinkedIn mentioned the traditional association of owls with the goddess Athena: Perhaps the daughter's lack of feeling (lack of compassion) for how she treats the beggar is why she's changed into the owl, and is also associated with Athena and wisdom: This reminds me of that line/title from the song in "The Music Man": "The Sadder but Wiser Girl for me": In the folktale, perhaps the point is not merely that the daughter would be punished for her lack of generosity and compassion, but that she must become wiser from her mistakes? Some people make mistakes, and keep making he same mistakes over and over again. The daughter repeatedly tells her father the baker to make a smaller loaf, and he does, but it rises larger each time. At first, she is not learning from her mistakes. So perhaps the owl *does* represent Athena-wisdom in the folktale in that sense, if not in others?] ~~~~
- Jason (whose uncle killed his father and usurped the throne) carries who he thinks is an old woman across a river; she turns out to have been the goddess Hera in disguise.
- Zeus and Hermes, disguised as peasants, are welcomed by Baucis and Philemon and rewarded, while their less generous neighbors are punished.
- In another similar tale, disciples on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion welcome a stranger, Jesus in disguise.
Two takeaways:
1. Inhospitality to strangers and beggars offends the (disguised) gods and may result in harsh consequences.
2. Generosity to strangers and beggars pleases the gods and is rewarded.
In a 1917 book on Hamlet,* the author claims Ophelia views herself as the baker’s daughter, and Prince Hamlet as the beggar. One hundred years later, it may seem to us that Simon A. Blackmore assumes too much, but he writes,
The legend [of the beggar and the baker's daughter] had been often used in [what we might imagine to be Ophelia's] early childhood to enkindle kind feelings for the poor and unfortunate. Such impressions, after others of later years have faded, remain still fresh in the memory of the insane, as well as of those in second childhood. The story, which is current to-day among the nursery tales of Gloucestershire, relates that the Savior in disguise entered a baker's shop, asking for some bread; and, when the baker charitably put a large piece of dough into the oven to bake for Him, his daughter rebuked him, and for her unkindness was changed into an owl. The idea of this sudden transformation prompts Ophelia to exclaim: "Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be." It no doubt suggested the thought of her own unkindness to Hamlet; for her equally heartless conduct had, she believed, made him insane.
Ophelia may consider Hamlet to be the beggar (as he terms himself at times), and herself the baker’s daughter, ungenerous to reject him rather than risk disobeying her father (as various other daughters in Shakespeare plays might have done, such as Cordelia in King Lear). She may be ruminating in her madness (perhaps more successfully than Claudius at prayer) about how her past choices may have contributed to her dire situation.
Ophelia’s “God be at your table” (4.5.2786) can therefore imply, Welcome beggars, as I failed to, because a god may visit in the form of a beggar of some sort and ask for food, or for help of some kind.
The tale of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 seems to illustrate and combine what Jesus claims to be the two greatest laws: love of God, and love of neighbor (Mt 22:37–40, Mk 12:29–31, Luke 10:27, based on Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18).
It also illustrates the saying of Jesus that “inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me” (Geneva), similar to Prov. 14:31 and 19:17.
For Shakespeare writing during the English Reformation, this is not a stereotypically Roman Catholic idea centered on Eucharist and transubstantiation, and yet it could be described as a sacramental view of hospitality. What one does to the beggar or stranger, one does unto God.
Ophelia's statement that “we know what we are, but know not what we may be” may be a reference to 1 John 3:2,
"Dearly beloved, now are we the sons of God, but yet it is not made manifest what we shall be: and we know that when he shall be made manifest: we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is." But it can also imply: To my brother and father, I was a beggar spurned,
but when Hamlet was the beggar, I was ungenerous (changing roles in the story).
What are we now? What shall we be later? We may think we fully grasp the roles we play in life, but we should not be too confident in assuming so.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * See page 375, The Riddles of Hamlet and the Newest Answers, 1917, by Simon Augustine Blackmore, 1848-1926, Boston, Stratford Co., available online at this link:
https://archive.org/details/riddlesofhamletn00blac/page/n7/mode/2up
See also Richard Finkelstein, "Differentiating 'Hamlet': Ophelia and the Problems of Subjectivity"
in Renaissance and Reformation Vol: 21 No: 2 Date: 1997 Pages: 5-22
OCLC - 5884807087; ISSN - 0034429X
From page 15: Not having responded to Hamlet's entreaty after his soliloquy on action, she is later "the owl [that] was a baker's daughter" — the daughter Jesus turned into an owl because she did not respond generously to his request for bread.
and Finkelstein's FN 27:
27. See note to 4.5.42 in The Riverside Shakespeare, eds. G. Blakemore Evans et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974), p. 1173.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POSTS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR:
1. New Series: Lazarus & Dives (the Rich Man) in Hamlet - 16 February, 2021
2. If the Ghost was Like the Rich Man, Who was His Lazarus? - 23 February, 2021
3. Illegal to be Beggar Lazarus in Shakespeare's England - 3 March, 2021
4. Beggars & Players' Ill Report: Polonius Measuring, Being Measured - 9 March, 2021
5. Sleuthing Hamlet's Lazarus Echoes in their Biblical Contexts & Implications - 16 March, 2021
6. Ophelia in 1.3 as the Beggar Lazarus - 23 March, 2021
7. Beggars, Thieves, & Cranmer’s Conflations - 30 March, 2021
8. Welcome Lazarus & Lord Strange's Men, for You Were Once Strangers - 5 April, 2021
9. Lazarus & the Beggar-Thief-Rioter-Revolutionary Continuum - 13 April, 2021
10. Lazarus & other Hamlet-correlations in Cranmer's Homily IX - 20 April, 2021
11. The Beggar Lazarus at the Baker's Door in Hamlet 4.5 - 27 April, 2021
12. Jewell's Homily V & Lazarus-Hamlet-Claudius Correlations - 4 May, 2021
13. Beggars and Rich Men at Ophelia's Grave - 18 May, 2021
14. Hamlet Nunnery Scene Haunted by Homily VI, Book 2 - 25 May, 2021
15. Hamlet, beggar-prince: Horatio's allusion to Lazarus and requiem Mass in 5.2 - 1 June, 2021
16. Monarchs as Beggars’ Shadows: Lazarus in Hamlet 2.2 - 8 June, 2021
17. Kings, Beggars, Worms, Excrement, Eucharist, Buddha Bunny, and Lazarus in Hamlet 4.3 - 14 June, 2021
18. In service of art: How art may have influenced the Lazarus theme in Hamlet - 22 June, 2021
19. Preview: Other instances of Lazarus/lazar/beg/beggar/poor in Shakespeare - 13 July, 2021
20. Lazarus & prodigals in Henry IV, Part I, and in Hamlet - 20 July, 2021
21. Other instances of "lazar" in Shakespeare besides Hamlet - 27 July, 2021
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hamlet quotes: All quotes from 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 another, 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.
Shakespeare offers a Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 (couched in a compound word, "lazar-like"). We find things analogous to rich men and beggars in earlier and later scenes (as shown in 1.3 with Ophelia, and in 2.2 with the players, among other such analogous moments).
An indirect allusion to the Lazarus tale also comes in 4.5, when Ophelia says,
"They say the owl was a baker's daughter." (4.5.2784) The connection of this statement to the Lazarus tale is easy to miss for audiences unfamiliar with the folktale of a beggar treated ungenerously by a baker's daughter.
In that tale, a baker is not literally a rich man, but at least rich in bread. When a beggar comes to the door, he readies dough to bake in order to feed the beggar, but after it rises, the daughter repeatedly tells him to make it smaller. He does, but each of three times, it rises even more.
The beggar in disguise was Jesus in some versions of the tale, or a fairy in others (in any case, some sort of supernatural being). In punishment for her lack of generosity, the daughter is changed into an owl, a death-omen.
Owls cry, "WHO?" as if to ask,
Who is really at the door?
Beggar, or a god in disguise?
First words in Hamlet: Who's there?
~~~ [Edit/addendum, 5 May, 2021: A connection on LinkedIn mentioned the traditional association of owls with the goddess Athena: Perhaps the daughter's lack of feeling (lack of compassion) for how she treats the beggar is why she's changed into the owl, and is also associated with Athena and wisdom: This reminds me of that line/title from the song in "The Music Man": "The Sadder but Wiser Girl for me": In the folktale, perhaps the point is not merely that the daughter would be punished for her lack of generosity and compassion, but that she must become wiser from her mistakes? Some people make mistakes, and keep making he same mistakes over and over again. The daughter repeatedly tells her father the baker to make a smaller loaf, and he does, but it rises larger each time. At first, she is not learning from her mistakes. So perhaps the owl *does* represent Athena-wisdom in the folktale in that sense, if not in others?] ~~~~
[Burrowing Owl. Cropped. Credit: Douglas Barnum, U. S. Geological Survey. Public domain.]
- Jason (whose uncle killed his father and usurped the throne) carries who he thinks is an old woman across a river; she turns out to have been the goddess Hera in disguise.
- Zeus and Hermes, disguised as peasants, are welcomed by Baucis and Philemon and rewarded, while their less generous neighbors are punished.
- In another similar tale, disciples on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion welcome a stranger, Jesus in disguise.
Two takeaways:
1. Inhospitality to strangers and beggars offends the (disguised) gods and may result in harsh consequences.
2. Generosity to strangers and beggars pleases the gods and is rewarded.
In a 1917 book on Hamlet,* the author claims Ophelia views herself as the baker’s daughter, and Prince Hamlet as the beggar. One hundred years later, it may seem to us that Simon A. Blackmore assumes too much, but he writes,
The legend [of the beggar and the baker's daughter] had been often used in [what we might imagine to be Ophelia's] early childhood to enkindle kind feelings for the poor and unfortunate. Such impressions, after others of later years have faded, remain still fresh in the memory of the insane, as well as of those in second childhood. The story, which is current to-day among the nursery tales of Gloucestershire, relates that the Savior in disguise entered a baker's shop, asking for some bread; and, when the baker charitably put a large piece of dough into the oven to bake for Him, his daughter rebuked him, and for her unkindness was changed into an owl. The idea of this sudden transformation prompts Ophelia to exclaim: "Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be." It no doubt suggested the thought of her own unkindness to Hamlet; for her equally heartless conduct had, she believed, made him insane.
Ophelia may consider Hamlet to be the beggar (as he terms himself at times), and herself the baker’s daughter, ungenerous to reject him rather than risk disobeying her father (as various other daughters in Shakespeare plays might have done, such as Cordelia in King Lear). She may be ruminating in her madness (perhaps more successfully than Claudius at prayer) about how her past choices may have contributed to her dire situation.
Ophelia’s “God be at your table” (4.5.2786) can therefore imply, Welcome beggars, as I failed to, because a god may visit in the form of a beggar of some sort and ask for food, or for help of some kind.
The tale of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 seems to illustrate and combine what Jesus claims to be the two greatest laws: love of God, and love of neighbor (Mt 22:37–40, Mk 12:29–31, Luke 10:27, based on Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18).
It also illustrates the saying of Jesus that “inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me” (Geneva), similar to Prov. 14:31 and 19:17.
For Shakespeare writing during the English Reformation, this is not a stereotypically Roman Catholic idea centered on Eucharist and transubstantiation, and yet it could be described as a sacramental view of hospitality. What one does to the beggar or stranger, one does unto God.
Ophelia's statement that “we know what we are, but know not what we may be” may be a reference to 1 John 3:2,
"Dearly beloved, now are we the sons of God, but yet it is not made manifest what we shall be: and we know that when he shall be made manifest: we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is." But it can also imply: To my brother and father, I was a beggar spurned,
but when Hamlet was the beggar, I was ungenerous (changing roles in the story).
What are we now? What shall we be later? We may think we fully grasp the roles we play in life, but we should not be too confident in assuming so.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * See page 375, The Riddles of Hamlet and the Newest Answers, 1917, by Simon Augustine Blackmore, 1848-1926, Boston, Stratford Co., available online at this link:
https://archive.org/details/riddlesofhamletn00blac/page/n7/mode/2up
See also Richard Finkelstein, "Differentiating 'Hamlet': Ophelia and the Problems of Subjectivity"
in Renaissance and Reformation Vol: 21 No: 2 Date: 1997 Pages: 5-22
OCLC - 5884807087; ISSN - 0034429X
From page 15: Not having responded to Hamlet's entreaty after his soliloquy on action, she is later "the owl [that] was a baker's daughter" — the daughter Jesus turned into an owl because she did not respond generously to his request for bread.
and Finkelstein's FN 27:
27. See note to 4.5.42 in The Riverside Shakespeare, eds. G. Blakemore Evans et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974), p. 1173.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POSTS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR:
1. New Series: Lazarus & Dives (the Rich Man) in Hamlet - 16 February, 2021
2. If the Ghost was Like the Rich Man, Who was His Lazarus? - 23 February, 2021
3. Illegal to be Beggar Lazarus in Shakespeare's England - 3 March, 2021
4. Beggars & Players' Ill Report: Polonius Measuring, Being Measured - 9 March, 2021
5. Sleuthing Hamlet's Lazarus Echoes in their Biblical Contexts & Implications - 16 March, 2021
6. Ophelia in 1.3 as the Beggar Lazarus - 23 March, 2021
7. Beggars, Thieves, & Cranmer’s Conflations - 30 March, 2021
8. Welcome Lazarus & Lord Strange's Men, for You Were Once Strangers - 5 April, 2021
9. Lazarus & the Beggar-Thief-Rioter-Revolutionary Continuum - 13 April, 2021
10. Lazarus & other Hamlet-correlations in Cranmer's Homily IX - 20 April, 2021
11. The Beggar Lazarus at the Baker's Door in Hamlet 4.5 - 27 April, 2021
12. Jewell's Homily V & Lazarus-Hamlet-Claudius Correlations - 4 May, 2021
13. Beggars and Rich Men at Ophelia's Grave - 18 May, 2021
14. Hamlet Nunnery Scene Haunted by Homily VI, Book 2 - 25 May, 2021
15. Hamlet, beggar-prince: Horatio's allusion to Lazarus and requiem Mass in 5.2 - 1 June, 2021
16. Monarchs as Beggars’ Shadows: Lazarus in Hamlet 2.2 - 8 June, 2021
17. Kings, Beggars, Worms, Excrement, Eucharist, Buddha Bunny, and Lazarus in Hamlet 4.3 - 14 June, 2021
18. In service of art: How art may have influenced the Lazarus theme in Hamlet - 22 June, 2021
19. Preview: Other instances of Lazarus/lazar/beg/beggar/poor in Shakespeare - 13 July, 2021
20. Lazarus & prodigals in Henry IV, Part I, and in Hamlet - 20 July, 2021
21. Other instances of "lazar" in Shakespeare besides Hamlet - 27 July, 2021
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hamlet quotes: All quotes from 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 another, 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.
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