Jewell's Homily V & Lazarus-Hamlet-Claudius Correlations (part 12 in Lazarus series)
Two Early Modern texts - each in their own ways well-known in their time - both touch upon all the following themes:
adultery, lust, drunkenness, selfish ambition, sedition, envy, murder, incest, madness, and poison.
They also allude to the following historical or Biblical-mythical characters:
Alexander the Great,
Herod
John the Baptist
The Beggar Lazarus and the selfish rich man
The Serpent in the Garden
Adam
Cain
King David
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
What are those two Early Modern texts?
If you guessed
(1) Homily V. from Book II of the official English Church homilies, "Against Gluttony and Drunkenness" (usually attributed to John Jewell), and (2) Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
you are correct.
The general idea in the homily is that any excess pursuit of pleasure in sex, food, or drink, is sinful, while all the things Christians receive as gifts from God in a spirit of thanksgiving and moderation are good. (Jewell might therefore disagree with Mae West, often quoted as having said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”)
What does it mean, for Shakespeare to have utilized so many elements from a homily he may have heard often in his life before writing or revising his play? Two texts woven from the same cloth? Or the later reweaving threads from the earlier?
That question is too grand for me to answer in one blog post, but I will attempt to show here how some of these themes that come up in the homily are also present in Shakespeare's Hamlet, sometimes with interesting variations.
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John Jewell (1522-1571) was an English Bishop who became famous, not only for having edited and perhaps written many of the homilies that were added, as a second book, to the official and approved homilies of Thomas Cranmer, but also as a polemicist defending English Protestantism against both Roman Catholicism and Puritanism, the later of which he considered the worse of the two.
As I have noted earlier, my purpose in finding connections between these homilies and Hamlet is not to say that Shakespeare rushed home after hearing a homily and wrote or revised his play, but rather, to demonstrate how Shakespeare and the homilies both existed in the same scripture-influenced culture, drinking from the same well, and Shakespeare possibly being influenced in general by Jewell.
If one claims that Jewell's homily and Shakespeare's play are woven from the same cloth, it might be said that, having the benefit of hearing Jewell's homily, Shakespeare might be said to have woven from some of the same threads.
Reading the homilies helps me to understand some of the thinking the play embodies, in this case about drinking and sin, but also about many of the other references the homily and the play have in common.
Homily V in Book 2 deals to a great extent with the vice of drinking, so if you had lived in Shakespeare’s time and heard this homily right after seeing Hamlet at The Globe, you might think of Claudius and his drinking games, among other things. And Shakespeare may have been influenced in part by homilies like this in creating a prince like Hamlet, who denounces the drinking games of a king like Claudius.
NOTES ON MY METHOD OF CITATION IN THIS POST FOR HOMILY V
John Jewell’s homily V, “Against Gluttony and Drunkenness,” can be found here with original spelling:
http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/homilies/bk2hom05.htm
And here from an 1859 edition with modern spelling, page and line numbers:
https://archive.org/details/twobookshomilie00grifgoog/page/n380/mode/2up
I usually refer to the second, but look to the first to make up when pages are missing in the version at Archive.org.
The second source, the 1859 edition (from Archive.org), also includes both page and line numbers, which might be more helpful for others hoping to locate specific passages.
Although there are newer and more expensive scholarly editions available (check here) with better notes and background, the 1859 edition is free on the internet, and therefore helpful to students and other independent scholars, like me, with limited budgets.
In the second resource, a scan of a hard copy, Homily V from Book Two begins on page 297, but the digital numbering lists it as page 381 (because of blank pages and front matter).
I will reference the page numbers from the scanned hard copy pages (not the digital page numbers listed by the softeware engine) in my comments below.
This is the second of three (or more) of the the official homilies to refer explicitly to the tale of the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16:19-26. The Lazarus allusion in homily V occurs on 301.30, but many other references in the homily also relate to Hamlet.
For lack of any easy and short system of references, I will cite the passages as follows:
- Because this is from the 2nd book of homilies: B2 (Book 2)
- Because the homily is number V or 5, B2H5 (Book 2, Homily 5).
- Page 301, line 30, I will refer to as 301.30 when all references are to the same homily.
- If I needed to switch from one book or homily to another, it could therefore be cited as B2H5 301.30 (Book 2, Homily 5, page 300, line 30).
ADULTERY, SELFISH AMBITION, SEDITION, ENVY, MURDER, DRUNKENNESS
The homily cites many passages from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures which denounce drunkenness and associate it, and gluttony, with the rich man in Luke 16 who neglects the beggar Lazarus at his gate. For example, Jewell (2.5.297.33) mentions Galatians 5:19-21, which in the Geneva translation reads,
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In the Bishop’s Bible (the translation used in church), this passage reads,
19 The deedes of the flesshe are manifest, which are these, adulterie, fornication, vncleannesse, wantonnesse 20 Worshippyng of images, witchcrafte, hatred, variaunce, zeale, wrath, strife, seditions, sectes 21 Enuyinges, murthers, drunkennesse, gluttonies, and such lyke: of the whiche I tell you before, as I haue tolde you in tyme past, that they which do suche thinges, shall not inherite the kingdome of God.
One might observe that the ghost and/or Hamlet accuse Claudius of six of these:
“adultery,”
“selfish ambition” (listed in Geneva),
“sedition” (usurping the throne),
“envy,”
“murder” (included in Bishops’ but not Geneva)
and “drunkenness.”
CAIN’S MURDER OF HIS BROTHER
On 298.5, Jewell refers to the sin of murder, which “maketh us companions of Cain in the slaughter of our brethren,” a name Hamlet evokes in 5.1, and which Claudius refers to indirectly in 3.3 (“A brother’s murder!”).
THE VENGEANCE OF GOD & THE SOBRIETY OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Interestingly, the homily also explicitly mentions the “vengeance” of God, “in the day of vengeance” (299.1). Jewell continues, describing a tale from Luke 21:
...Whosoever then will take warn-
ing at Christ, let him take heed to himself, lest, his heart being
overwhelmed by surfeiting and drowned in drunkenness, he be
taken unwares [unawares] with that unthrifty servant which, thinking not
on his master's coming, began to smite his fellow servants… (299.5-9)
This passage could be used to describe Claudius, inviting a toast in the last scene of the play, but Hamlet refusing to drink. Claudius thinks he is about to triumph over Hamlet, because he has not only poison in the drink, but also on the sword of Laertes. What could go wrong? But in fact, his own life will soon be forfeit.
PULLING THE CUP, OR FORCING THE CUP?
Jewell continues,
...They
that use to drink deeply and to feed at full, wallowing them-
selves in all kind of wickedness, are brought asleep in that
slumbering forgetfulness of God's holy will and commandments.
Therefore Almighty God crieth by the Prophet Joel, Awake, ye
drunkards; weep and howl, all ye drinkers of wine; because the
new wine shall be pulled from your mouth. Here the Lord terri-
bly threateneth to withdraw his benefits from such as abuse
them, and to pull the cup from the mouth of drunkards. Here
ao we may learn not to sleep in drunkenness and surfeiting, lest
God deprive us of the use of his creatures, when we unkindly
abuse them. For certainly the Lord our God will not only take
away his benefits when they are unthankfully abused, but also,
in his wrath and heavy displeasure, take vengeance on such as
immoderately abuse them. (2.299.11-25)
Shakespeare includes an ironic twist on this theme, in which Hamlet gives Claudius his own poisoned cup to drink, instead of merely taking away a more benign cup.
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE, THE UNWEEDED GARDEN OF DENMARK
Hamlet refers to Adam of Genesis, and so does Jewell in this homily (299.26); Hamlet speaks of Denmark as like an “unweeded garden” that has been possessed by weeds and “rank” things (1.2); Jewell says that it was a sin of excess (299.33), eating forbidden fruit (299.27), that led to Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise (299.32).
ON NOAH & DRINKING
Jewell’s description of the drunkenness of Noah (300.6-12) resembles Hamlet’s description of how other nations view the drinking games of Claudius:
The patriarch Noah, whom the Apostle calleth the preacher
of righteousness, a man exceedingly in God's favour, is in holy
Scripture made an example whereby we may learn to avoid
drunkenness. For, when he had poured in wine more than was
convenient, in filthy manner he lay naked in his tent, his
privities discovered. And, whereas sometime be was much
esteemed, he is now become a laughingstock…. (300.6-12)
Here
we may note that drunkenness bringeth with it shame and deri-
sion, so that it never escapeth unpunished. (300.14-16)
Hamlet says that the drinking games of Claudius are an embarrassment to Denmark, and that the tradition of these games, drinking and shooting off cannons, would be better honored “in the breach,” or better when the practice is not done:
HAMLET: ...it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition, and indeed it takes
From our achievements, though performed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute. (1.4.620-621.6)
LOT, DRINKING, & INCEST
Jewell then relates the story of how Lot, “overcome with wine, committeth abominable incest with his own daughters” (300.17-18); in Hamlet, Claudius is similarly accused of both drunkenness and incest, marrying his dead brother’s wife.
The homily further relates that “men overcome with drink are altogether mad, as Seneca saith” (300.26), from an often quoted saying of Seneca that “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.” And we know that the alleged madness of the prince is a central theme in Hamlet.
AMMONITES DESCENDED FROM INCEST, DEFEATED BY JEPHTHAH
Jewell mentions that the Ammonites were among those descended from the incestuous union of Lot with his daughters. This relates indirectly to the play in Hamlet’s comparison of Polonius to Jephthah (2.2.1451), because in the Jephthah found in the Bible (Judges 11-12), Jephthah defeats the Ammonites.
WONDROUS STRANGE? AS A STRANGER, BID IT WELCOME
On page 301 (lines 2-3), Jewell mentions “Abraham, one that entertained the angels of God.” This is one of the earliest stories in the Hebrew scriptures that demonstrates the importance of hospitality to strangers because of how strangers may be “angels of God,” so in welcoming them, one welcomes God, and in rejecting them, one rejects God. Horatio and Hamlet have a related exchange regarding the strangeness of the ghost:
HORATIO: Oh, day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
HAMLET: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. (1.5.861-2)
The tale in Luke 16 of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus demonstrates the consequences of failure to welcome the beggar or stranger, or what Jesus calls “the least of these” (Mt 25:40). A similar tale demonstrating consequences of failure to welcome the stranger or beggar is that of the baker’s daughter and the owl (Hamlet 4.5.2784).
DRUNKENNESS, LUST, INCEST, VENGEANCE, MURDER
Jewell further associates drunkenness with lust, murder, and vengeance: “...behold the terrible examples of God's indignation against such as greedily follow their unsatiable lusts” (301.7-8), first citing Absalon’s revenge killing of his brother Amnon while Amnon was drunk; this was in revenge for Amnon having raped his own half-sister, Tamar. Claudius is similarly associated with murder of a brother, with lust, and with incest.
The ghost in particular notes the lust of Claudius:
GHOST: Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts--
Oh, wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming virtuous queen.
[...]
So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed
And prey on garbage. (1.5.729-42)
Even earlier in the play, Hamlet compares his father to Hyperion, one of the Titans, and compares Claudius to a “satyr” (1.2.324), associated with drinking and lust.
IDOLATRY, AND THE SELF-IDOLATRY OF CLAUDIUS’ DRINKING GAME
Jewell notes, “If the Israelites had not given themselves to belly cheer, they had never so often fallen to idolatry” (301.16-18), the worship of false gods. The drinking game of Claudius involves firing a cannon each time he has a toast, which Claudius describes this way:
CLAUDIUS: ...No jocund health that Denmark drinks today
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the King's rouse the heavens shall bruit [echo] again,
Respeaking earthly thunder. (1.2.308-11)
Claudius seems to think he can simulate thunder with his cannon, imitating the heavens, as if Claudius were a kind of god.
HEROD’S EXECUTION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AT SALOME’S REQUEST
Jewell notes the execution of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas, one of the two sons of Herod the Great: Herod had married the divorced wife of his brother, a marriage John the Baptist had condemned, so when his new wife’s daughter danced pleasingly for him, Herod offered her a wish. She asked for the head of John the Baptist. Here’s the passage in which Jewell notes this:
So Herod, setting his
mind on banqueting, was content to grant that the holy man
of God, John the Baptist, should be beheaded at the request
of his whore's daughter. (301.25-8)
Because Jewell doesn’t consider the marriage valid, he refers to the new wife of Herod as “his whore.”
Hamlet contains a number of direct and indirect references to Herod and John the Baptist, which I’ve blogged about in the past:
- The most explicit references are Hamlet’s double reference to Herod in 3.2.1862 (“out-Herod’s Herod”), and the name of the duke’s wife in “The Mousetrap”: “Gonzago is the Duke's name, his wife Baptista” (3.2.2106-7).
- The second scene of the first act, in which Claudius asks Laertes what he could ask that Denmark's king would not be willing to give, also echoes Herod Antipas in his offer of a wish to Salome, a less explicit connection we might call a plot echo more than an explicit allusion.
So if Laertes is a kind of Salome figure in Hamlet 1.2 and 4.7.3105-3153, asking for the life of a John the Baptist figure who opposes an incestuous marriage of a king, that prophetic soul he would like executed is Prince Hamlet.
LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN
On page 301, we also find Jewell’s reference in this homily to Lazarus and the rich man:
Had not the rich glutton been so
greedily given to the pampering of his belly, he would never
have been so unmerciful to the poor Lazarus, neither had he
felt the torments of unquenchable fire. (301.28-31)
ALEXANDER
Jewell also mentions Alexander the great:
The great Alexander, after that he had conquered the whole
world, was himself overcome by drunkenness; insomuch that,
being drunken, he slew his faithful friend Clitus; whereof,
when he was sober, he was so much ashamed that for anguish (301.37-40)
of heart he wished death. Yet, notwithstanding, after this he
left not his banqueting, but in one night swilled in so much
wine that he fell into a fever; and, when as by no means he
would abstain from wine, within few days after in miserable
sort he ended his life. The conqueror of the whole world is
made a slave by excess, and becometh so mad, that he murder-
eth his dear friend: he is plagued with sorrow, shame, and
grief of heart for his intemperancy, yet can he not leave it; he
is kept in captivity; and he, which sometime had subdued
many, is become a subject to the vile belly. (302.1-10)
Hamlet mentions Alexander five times to Horatio in 5.1:
HAMLET: Dost thou think Alexander looked o'this fashion i'th' earth?
HORATIO: E'en so.
HAMLET: And smelt so? Pah! [He throws the skull down.]
HORATIO: E'en so, my lord.
HAMLET: To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till 'a find it stopping a bunghole?
HORATIO: 'Twere to consider too curiously to consider so.
HAMLET:No, faith, not a jot. But to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it, as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel? (5.1.3385-99)
SERPENTS & THE BITE OF POISONED WINE
Jewell speaks of how wine is sometimes altered (303.32, “tempering the wine”), and quotes Solomon who forbade the sight of wine (303.36), and who said, “it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrice” (304.1), and goes on to note,
Certainly that must needs be very hurtful which biteth and in-
fecteth like a poisoned serpent, whereby men are brought to
filthy fornication, which causeth the heart to devise mischief. (304.7-9)
On this point we might recall that the ghost in 1.5 tells Hamlet how he knows that the official story is that he was bitten by a serpent while napping in his garden, but that in fact the serpent that bit him was his brother (1.5.722-27), and Claudius the poisoner will later poison the wine in 5.2.
SLEEPLESSNESS FOR GLUTTONS, AND FOR HAMLET ON HIS SEA-VOYAGE
Jewell mentions that “the insatiable feeder never sleepeth quietly” (304.22), and we know that for other reasons (a restless mind), Hamlet has difficulty sleeping on his sea-voyage, as he later relates to Horatio in 5.2:
HAMLET: Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. (5.2.3503-5)
BANQUETS CAUSE MADNESS: ASK ME ABOUT THAT ONE THANKSGIVING
Jewell says that too much banqueting can lead to madness: “For sometimes men are stricken with phrensy of mind, and are brought in manner to mere madness” (304.26-7). While banqueting is not Hamlet’s problem, the theme of madness is present in both the play and in this homily by Jewell.
WINE, WOMEN, WISE MEN, MONSTERS, AND NUNNERIES
“Wine and women lead wise men out of the way” (304.35-6), bringing “men of understanding to reproof and shame” (304.36-305.1), Jewell claims, citing Jesus son of Sirach.
Shakespeare’s religious culture often viewed drunkenness and women as leading even wise men to sin, which helps explain why Hamlet repeatedly urges Ophelia to get “to a nunnery,” saying, “wise men know well enough what / monsters you make of them” (3.1.1794).
DRUNKEN MAGISTRATES AND CRUEL TYRANTS
Excess of drinking can make magistrates tyrants, according to Jewell:
In magistrates it causeth cruelty instead
of justice, as that wise philosopher Plato perceived right well,
when he affirmed, that “a drunken man hath a tyrannous
heart,” and therefore will rule all at his pleasure, contrary to
right and reason. And certainly drunkenness maketh men
forget both law and equity: which caused king Salomon so
straitly to charge that no wine should be given unto rulers…
(305.4-10)
For a drunkard knoweth not where he is himself: if then a
man of authority should be a drunkard, alas, how might he be
a guide unto other men, standing in need of a governor him-
self? (305.15-18)
Although many argue that Claudius seems a capable king (citing his diplomacy with Norway, which is questionable given the claims of Fortinbras in the last scene), Shakespeare’s culture may have associated Claudius (and his drinking games) with corruption, tyranny, and injustice, as Jewell’s homily here suggests.
MORE ON POISON (AND THE DRINKING OF IT)
Jewell cites Seneca again, this time about the drinking of poison, another Hamlet theme:
If any man think that he may drink much
wine, and yet be well in his wits, he may as well suppose, as
Seneca saith, “that when he hath drunken poison he shall not die.” (306.4-7)
We know how drinking poison turns out for Getrude and Claudius.
DAINTY AND DELICATE FARE FOR THE RICH MAN
Jewell notes that “where the belly is stuffed with dainty fare, there the mind is oppressed with slothful sluggishness” (306.8-10).
Compare this with the description of the rich man who is ungenerous with the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16.19:
There was a certaine riche man, which was clothed in purple and fine linnen, and fared well and delicately euery day.
Here “dainty fare” and “faired well and delicately” are two ways of saying the same thing; the rich man is so well fed that his mind, “oppressed with slothful sluggishness,” neglects the beggar Lazarus.
We should also note a connection here to Hamlet’s description of Fortinbras as “delicate and tender” (4.4.2743.42), a description that is not a compliment, as the biblical meaning would be equivalent to “pampered and spoiled” (which I've blogged about before).
BERNARDO, SAINT (AND CHARACTER IN HAMLET)
St. Bernard of Clairvaux was famous for having reformed the Cistercian monastic movement, which had a number of monasteries in England before all the monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII (1536-41).
Jewell quotes him as having said, “A full belly maketh a gross understanding.”
And “Barnardo” is the first person to speak in Hamlet: “Who’s there?”
For more on the strong possibility that Shaakespeare named the first person to speak in the play after St. Bernard of Clairvaux, see the following posts:
Corrupted Reformers: Why Someone Named After Bernard Of Clairvaux Should Be First To Speak In Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/corrupted-reformers-why-someone-named.html
Reconciliations: Laertes with Hamlet, Bernard with Abelard https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/bernardo-abelard-hamlet-laertes-reconcile.html
What Bernard and Francis have to do with Shakespeare & the Bible https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-do-francisco-bernardo-have-to-do.html
WHY BERNARDO & FRANCISCO ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE IN SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-bernardo-francisco-are-not.html
How Geographical Memory May Have Encouraged the Naming of Francisco and Bernardo in Hamlet https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-geographical-memory-may-have.html
SCOURGE AND MINISTER: BERNARD AND FRANCIS
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/03/scourge-minister-bernard-francis.html
MORE DRUNKEN MADNESS
Jewell notes that in his time, “if they be not pinched by lack and poverty” (306.17) some men
have worldly wealth and riches abundant to satisfy their
unmeasurable lusts, they care not what they do. They are not
ashamed to shew their drunken faces, and to play the mad men
openly. (306.13-16)
And again, madness is an important theme in Hamlet.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
We have seen how, in Luke 16.19-31, after the rich man and Lazarus die, they change places in a reversal of fortunes: The beggar Lazarus is welcomed into heaven, and the rich man becomes a beggar in hell. Jewell suggests a similar reversal of fortune in his homily regarding drunkenness and gluttony:
He that draweth his patrimony through his throat, and eateth and drinketh more in one hour or in one day than he is able to earn in a whole week, must needs be an unthrift, and come to beggary. (306.25-28)
THEY HURT MORE THAN THEMSELVES WHO ARE A BAD EXAMPLE
Some complain that the drunkard and the glutton only hurt themselves, Jewell says (306.29-33), but he says that they are also hurtful “to the commonwealth by their example” (306.33-307.1):
Every one that meeteth them is troubled with brawl-
ing and contentious language; and ofttimes, raging in beastly
lusts like fed horses, they neigh on their neighbours' wives… (307.1-3)
Their
example is evil to them among whom they dwell; they are an
occasion of offence to many… (307.4-6)
They are unprofitable to the commonwealth ; for a
drunkard is neither fit to rule, nor to be ruled. They are a
slander to the Church or congregation of Christ; and therefore
St. Paul doth excommunicate them among whoremongers, ido-
laters, covetous* persons, and extortioners, forbidding Christians
to eat with any such. (307.11-16)
* (Claudius coveted his brother’s wife, a sin according to the commandments of Moses.)
The idea that those who drink or eat too much are a bad example relates to Hamlet’s assumption that Claudius - who hastily married his brother’s wife and assumed the throne after his brother’s death - is bad to have on Denmark’s throne: Even if he killed his brother in secret, he hasty marriage and ascension to the throne represent a very unusual series of events that would lead many to wonder if there wasn’t great corruption among Denmark’s leaders, something rotten at the top and out-of-joint, in great need of repair.
If the people of Denmark suspect Claudius may have killed his brother so as to wed Gertrude and take the throne, Laertes seems to be following the example of Claudius in preparing a secret plot of poison against Hamlet, and manipulated by Claudius to get rid of the threat of Hamlet in this way.
THE HASTE OF CLAUDIUS TO DRINK, AND HAMLET’S ABSTENTION
Jewell ends with some comments on the importance of moderation in eating and drinking, and on occasional fasting and abstinence. This might shed some light on how some people of the time might have viewed Hamlet’s refusal to drink from the cup after he scored the first hit:
Let us therefore, good people, eschew, every one of us, all
intemperancy; let us love sobriety and moderate diet, oft give
ourselves to abstinence and fasting, whereby the mind of man
is more lift up to God, more ready to all godly exercises, as
prayer, hearing and reading of God's word, to his spiritual com-
fort. Finally, whosoever regardeth the health and safety of his
own body, or wisheth always to be well in his wits, or desireth
quietness of mind, and abhorreth fury and madness; he that
would be rich and escape poverty; he that is willing to live
without the hurt of his neighbour, a profitable member of the
commonwealth, a Christian without slander of Christ and his
Church; let him avoid all riotous and excessive banqueting;
let him learn to keep such measure as behoveth him that pro-
fesseth true godliness; let him follow St. Paul's rule, and so
eat and drink to the glory and praise of God, who hath created
all things to be soberly used with thanksgiving. (307.17-32)
Hamlet earned the right to celebrate, but he abstained from drink because he knew the match was not yet over. His abstaining saved his life, at least for a short time, and that made a needed difference.
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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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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):
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adultery, lust, drunkenness, selfish ambition, sedition, envy, murder, incest, madness, and poison.
They also allude to the following historical or Biblical-mythical characters:
Alexander the Great,
Herod
John the Baptist
The Beggar Lazarus and the selfish rich man
The Serpent in the Garden
Adam
Cain
King David
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
What are those two Early Modern texts?
If you guessed
(1) Homily V. from Book II of the official English Church homilies, "Against Gluttony and Drunkenness" (usually attributed to John Jewell), and (2) Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
you are correct.
The general idea in the homily is that any excess pursuit of pleasure in sex, food, or drink, is sinful, while all the things Christians receive as gifts from God in a spirit of thanksgiving and moderation are good. (Jewell might therefore disagree with Mae West, often quoted as having said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”)
What does it mean, for Shakespeare to have utilized so many elements from a homily he may have heard often in his life before writing or revising his play? Two texts woven from the same cloth? Or the later reweaving threads from the earlier?
That question is too grand for me to answer in one blog post, but I will attempt to show here how some of these themes that come up in the homily are also present in Shakespeare's Hamlet, sometimes with interesting variations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Jewell (1522-1571) was an English Bishop who became famous, not only for having edited and perhaps written many of the homilies that were added, as a second book, to the official and approved homilies of Thomas Cranmer, but also as a polemicist defending English Protestantism against both Roman Catholicism and Puritanism, the later of which he considered the worse of the two.
[Portraits and engraving of John Jewell: Left: Artist unknown, at New College, University of Oxford. New College, University of Oxford. Photo credit: Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College/Bridgeman Images, who note, "This and all other known portraits of John Jewell seem to be based on a lost portrait from around 1560–1570." Crop. Fair use. / Center: Line engraving on paper, date unknown, by George Vertue (1684 – 1756). Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Cropped. Fair use. / Right: Artist unknown, National Portrait Gallery, London. Cropped. Via Wikimedia. Public domain.]
From the second book, homily V., "Against Gluttony and Drunkenness" (by Jewell, or by James Pilkington, edited by Jewell, according to Gerald Bray) is another of the official homilies that Shakespeare would have heard, probably often in his lifetime, as priests were sometimes suspected of being too sympathetic to Roman Catholic ideas and therefore required to read the official homilies rather than compose their own preaching. Like a homily of Cranmer previously considered in another blog post, this is another which mentions the Luke 16:19-31 tale of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, to which the ghost alludes in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
As I have noted earlier, my purpose in finding connections between these homilies and Hamlet is not to say that Shakespeare rushed home after hearing a homily and wrote or revised his play, but rather, to demonstrate how Shakespeare and the homilies both existed in the same scripture-influenced culture, drinking from the same well, and Shakespeare possibly being influenced in general by Jewell.
If one claims that Jewell's homily and Shakespeare's play are woven from the same cloth, it might be said that, having the benefit of hearing Jewell's homily, Shakespeare might be said to have woven from some of the same threads.
Reading the homilies helps me to understand some of the thinking the play embodies, in this case about drinking and sin, but also about many of the other references the homily and the play have in common.
Homily V in Book 2 deals to a great extent with the vice of drinking, so if you had lived in Shakespeare’s time and heard this homily right after seeing Hamlet at The Globe, you might think of Claudius and his drinking games, among other things. And Shakespeare may have been influenced in part by homilies like this in creating a prince like Hamlet, who denounces the drinking games of a king like Claudius.
NOTES ON MY METHOD OF CITATION IN THIS POST FOR HOMILY V
John Jewell’s homily V, “Against Gluttony and Drunkenness,” can be found here with original spelling:
http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/homilies/bk2hom05.htm
And here from an 1859 edition with modern spelling, page and line numbers:
https://archive.org/details/twobookshomilie00grifgoog/page/n380/mode/2up
I usually refer to the second, but look to the first to make up when pages are missing in the version at Archive.org.
The second source, the 1859 edition (from Archive.org), also includes both page and line numbers, which might be more helpful for others hoping to locate specific passages.
Although there are newer and more expensive scholarly editions available (check here) with better notes and background, the 1859 edition is free on the internet, and therefore helpful to students and other independent scholars, like me, with limited budgets.
In the second resource, a scan of a hard copy, Homily V from Book Two begins on page 297, but the digital numbering lists it as page 381 (because of blank pages and front matter).
I will reference the page numbers from the scanned hard copy pages (not the digital page numbers listed by the softeware engine) in my comments below.
This is the second of three (or more) of the the official homilies to refer explicitly to the tale of the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16:19-26. The Lazarus allusion in homily V occurs on 301.30, but many other references in the homily also relate to Hamlet.
For lack of any easy and short system of references, I will cite the passages as follows:
- Because this is from the 2nd book of homilies: B2 (Book 2)
- Because the homily is number V or 5, B2H5 (Book 2, Homily 5).
- Page 301, line 30, I will refer to as 301.30 when all references are to the same homily.
- If I needed to switch from one book or homily to another, it could therefore be cited as B2H5 301.30 (Book 2, Homily 5, page 300, line 30).
ADULTERY, SELFISH AMBITION, SEDITION, ENVY, MURDER, DRUNKENNESS
The homily cites many passages from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures which denounce drunkenness and associate it, and gluttony, with the rich man in Luke 16 who neglects the beggar Lazarus at his gate. For example, Jewell (2.5.297.33) mentions Galatians 5:19-21, which in the Geneva translation reads,
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In the Bishop’s Bible (the translation used in church), this passage reads,
19 The deedes of the flesshe are manifest, which are these, adulterie, fornication, vncleannesse, wantonnesse 20 Worshippyng of images, witchcrafte, hatred, variaunce, zeale, wrath, strife, seditions, sectes 21 Enuyinges, murthers, drunkennesse, gluttonies, and such lyke: of the whiche I tell you before, as I haue tolde you in tyme past, that they which do suche thinges, shall not inherite the kingdome of God.
One might observe that the ghost and/or Hamlet accuse Claudius of six of these:
“adultery,”
“selfish ambition” (listed in Geneva),
“sedition” (usurping the throne),
“envy,”
“murder” (included in Bishops’ but not Geneva)
and “drunkenness.”
CAIN’S MURDER OF HIS BROTHER
On 298.5, Jewell refers to the sin of murder, which “maketh us companions of Cain in the slaughter of our brethren,” a name Hamlet evokes in 5.1, and which Claudius refers to indirectly in 3.3 (“A brother’s murder!”).
THE VENGEANCE OF GOD & THE SOBRIETY OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Interestingly, the homily also explicitly mentions the “vengeance” of God, “in the day of vengeance” (299.1). Jewell continues, describing a tale from Luke 21:
...Whosoever then will take warn-
ing at Christ, let him take heed to himself, lest, his heart being
overwhelmed by surfeiting and drowned in drunkenness, he be
taken unwares [unawares] with that unthrifty servant which, thinking not
on his master's coming, began to smite his fellow servants… (299.5-9)
This passage could be used to describe Claudius, inviting a toast in the last scene of the play, but Hamlet refusing to drink. Claudius thinks he is about to triumph over Hamlet, because he has not only poison in the drink, but also on the sword of Laertes. What could go wrong? But in fact, his own life will soon be forfeit.
PULLING THE CUP, OR FORCING THE CUP?
Jewell continues,
...They
that use to drink deeply and to feed at full, wallowing them-
selves in all kind of wickedness, are brought asleep in that
slumbering forgetfulness of God's holy will and commandments.
Therefore Almighty God crieth by the Prophet Joel, Awake, ye
drunkards; weep and howl, all ye drinkers of wine; because the
new wine shall be pulled from your mouth. Here the Lord terri-
bly threateneth to withdraw his benefits from such as abuse
them, and to pull the cup from the mouth of drunkards. Here
ao we may learn not to sleep in drunkenness and surfeiting, lest
God deprive us of the use of his creatures, when we unkindly
abuse them. For certainly the Lord our God will not only take
away his benefits when they are unthankfully abused, but also,
in his wrath and heavy displeasure, take vengeance on such as
immoderately abuse them. (2.299.11-25)
Shakespeare includes an ironic twist on this theme, in which Hamlet gives Claudius his own poisoned cup to drink, instead of merely taking away a more benign cup.
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE, THE UNWEEDED GARDEN OF DENMARK
Hamlet refers to Adam of Genesis, and so does Jewell in this homily (299.26); Hamlet speaks of Denmark as like an “unweeded garden” that has been possessed by weeds and “rank” things (1.2); Jewell says that it was a sin of excess (299.33), eating forbidden fruit (299.27), that led to Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise (299.32).
ON NOAH & DRINKING
Jewell’s description of the drunkenness of Noah (300.6-12) resembles Hamlet’s description of how other nations view the drinking games of Claudius:
The patriarch Noah, whom the Apostle calleth the preacher
of righteousness, a man exceedingly in God's favour, is in holy
Scripture made an example whereby we may learn to avoid
drunkenness. For, when he had poured in wine more than was
convenient, in filthy manner he lay naked in his tent, his
privities discovered. And, whereas sometime be was much
esteemed, he is now become a laughingstock…. (300.6-12)
Here
we may note that drunkenness bringeth with it shame and deri-
sion, so that it never escapeth unpunished. (300.14-16)
Hamlet says that the drinking games of Claudius are an embarrassment to Denmark, and that the tradition of these games, drinking and shooting off cannons, would be better honored “in the breach,” or better when the practice is not done:
HAMLET: ...it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition, and indeed it takes
From our achievements, though performed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute. (1.4.620-621.6)
LOT, DRINKING, & INCEST
Jewell then relates the story of how Lot, “overcome with wine, committeth abominable incest with his own daughters” (300.17-18); in Hamlet, Claudius is similarly accused of both drunkenness and incest, marrying his dead brother’s wife.
The homily further relates that “men overcome with drink are altogether mad, as Seneca saith” (300.26), from an often quoted saying of Seneca that “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.” And we know that the alleged madness of the prince is a central theme in Hamlet.
AMMONITES DESCENDED FROM INCEST, DEFEATED BY JEPHTHAH
Jewell mentions that the Ammonites were among those descended from the incestuous union of Lot with his daughters. This relates indirectly to the play in Hamlet’s comparison of Polonius to Jephthah (2.2.1451), because in the Jephthah found in the Bible (Judges 11-12), Jephthah defeats the Ammonites.
WONDROUS STRANGE? AS A STRANGER, BID IT WELCOME
On page 301 (lines 2-3), Jewell mentions “Abraham, one that entertained the angels of God.” This is one of the earliest stories in the Hebrew scriptures that demonstrates the importance of hospitality to strangers because of how strangers may be “angels of God,” so in welcoming them, one welcomes God, and in rejecting them, one rejects God. Horatio and Hamlet have a related exchange regarding the strangeness of the ghost:
HORATIO: Oh, day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
HAMLET: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. (1.5.861-2)
The tale in Luke 16 of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus demonstrates the consequences of failure to welcome the beggar or stranger, or what Jesus calls “the least of these” (Mt 25:40). A similar tale demonstrating consequences of failure to welcome the stranger or beggar is that of the baker’s daughter and the owl (Hamlet 4.5.2784).
DRUNKENNESS, LUST, INCEST, VENGEANCE, MURDER
Jewell further associates drunkenness with lust, murder, and vengeance: “...behold the terrible examples of God's indignation against such as greedily follow their unsatiable lusts” (301.7-8), first citing Absalon’s revenge killing of his brother Amnon while Amnon was drunk; this was in revenge for Amnon having raped his own half-sister, Tamar. Claudius is similarly associated with murder of a brother, with lust, and with incest.
The ghost in particular notes the lust of Claudius:
GHOST: Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts--
Oh, wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming virtuous queen.
[...]
So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed
And prey on garbage. (1.5.729-42)
Even earlier in the play, Hamlet compares his father to Hyperion, one of the Titans, and compares Claudius to a “satyr” (1.2.324), associated with drinking and lust.
IDOLATRY, AND THE SELF-IDOLATRY OF CLAUDIUS’ DRINKING GAME
Jewell notes, “If the Israelites had not given themselves to belly cheer, they had never so often fallen to idolatry” (301.16-18), the worship of false gods. The drinking game of Claudius involves firing a cannon each time he has a toast, which Claudius describes this way:
CLAUDIUS: ...No jocund health that Denmark drinks today
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the King's rouse the heavens shall bruit [echo] again,
Respeaking earthly thunder. (1.2.308-11)
Claudius seems to think he can simulate thunder with his cannon, imitating the heavens, as if Claudius were a kind of god.
HEROD’S EXECUTION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AT SALOME’S REQUEST
Jewell notes the execution of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas, one of the two sons of Herod the Great: Herod had married the divorced wife of his brother, a marriage John the Baptist had condemned, so when his new wife’s daughter danced pleasingly for him, Herod offered her a wish. She asked for the head of John the Baptist. Here’s the passage in which Jewell notes this:
So Herod, setting his
mind on banqueting, was content to grant that the holy man
of God, John the Baptist, should be beheaded at the request
of his whore's daughter. (301.25-8)
Because Jewell doesn’t consider the marriage valid, he refers to the new wife of Herod as “his whore.”
Hamlet contains a number of direct and indirect references to Herod and John the Baptist, which I’ve blogged about in the past:
- The most explicit references are Hamlet’s double reference to Herod in 3.2.1862 (“out-Herod’s Herod”), and the name of the duke’s wife in “The Mousetrap”: “Gonzago is the Duke's name, his wife Baptista” (3.2.2106-7).
- The second scene of the first act, in which Claudius asks Laertes what he could ask that Denmark's king would not be willing to give, also echoes Herod Antipas in his offer of a wish to Salome, a less explicit connection we might call a plot echo more than an explicit allusion.
So if Laertes is a kind of Salome figure in Hamlet 1.2 and 4.7.3105-3153, asking for the life of a John the Baptist figure who opposes an incestuous marriage of a king, that prophetic soul he would like executed is Prince Hamlet.
LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN
On page 301, we also find Jewell’s reference in this homily to Lazarus and the rich man:
Had not the rich glutton been so
greedily given to the pampering of his belly, he would never
have been so unmerciful to the poor Lazarus, neither had he
felt the torments of unquenchable fire. (301.28-31)
ALEXANDER
Jewell also mentions Alexander the great:
The great Alexander, after that he had conquered the whole
world, was himself overcome by drunkenness; insomuch that,
being drunken, he slew his faithful friend Clitus; whereof,
when he was sober, he was so much ashamed that for anguish (301.37-40)
of heart he wished death. Yet, notwithstanding, after this he
left not his banqueting, but in one night swilled in so much
wine that he fell into a fever; and, when as by no means he
would abstain from wine, within few days after in miserable
sort he ended his life. The conqueror of the whole world is
made a slave by excess, and becometh so mad, that he murder-
eth his dear friend: he is plagued with sorrow, shame, and
grief of heart for his intemperancy, yet can he not leave it; he
is kept in captivity; and he, which sometime had subdued
many, is become a subject to the vile belly. (302.1-10)
Hamlet mentions Alexander five times to Horatio in 5.1:
HAMLET: Dost thou think Alexander looked o'this fashion i'th' earth?
HORATIO: E'en so.
HAMLET: And smelt so? Pah! [He throws the skull down.]
HORATIO: E'en so, my lord.
HAMLET: To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till 'a find it stopping a bunghole?
HORATIO: 'Twere to consider too curiously to consider so.
HAMLET:No, faith, not a jot. But to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it, as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel? (5.1.3385-99)
SERPENTS & THE BITE OF POISONED WINE
Jewell speaks of how wine is sometimes altered (303.32, “tempering the wine”), and quotes Solomon who forbade the sight of wine (303.36), and who said, “it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrice” (304.1), and goes on to note,
Certainly that must needs be very hurtful which biteth and in-
fecteth like a poisoned serpent, whereby men are brought to
filthy fornication, which causeth the heart to devise mischief. (304.7-9)
On this point we might recall that the ghost in 1.5 tells Hamlet how he knows that the official story is that he was bitten by a serpent while napping in his garden, but that in fact the serpent that bit him was his brother (1.5.722-27), and Claudius the poisoner will later poison the wine in 5.2.
SLEEPLESSNESS FOR GLUTTONS, AND FOR HAMLET ON HIS SEA-VOYAGE
Jewell mentions that “the insatiable feeder never sleepeth quietly” (304.22), and we know that for other reasons (a restless mind), Hamlet has difficulty sleeping on his sea-voyage, as he later relates to Horatio in 5.2:
HAMLET: Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. (5.2.3503-5)
BANQUETS CAUSE MADNESS: ASK ME ABOUT THAT ONE THANKSGIVING
Jewell says that too much banqueting can lead to madness: “For sometimes men are stricken with phrensy of mind, and are brought in manner to mere madness” (304.26-7). While banqueting is not Hamlet’s problem, the theme of madness is present in both the play and in this homily by Jewell.
WINE, WOMEN, WISE MEN, MONSTERS, AND NUNNERIES
“Wine and women lead wise men out of the way” (304.35-6), bringing “men of understanding to reproof and shame” (304.36-305.1), Jewell claims, citing Jesus son of Sirach.
Shakespeare’s religious culture often viewed drunkenness and women as leading even wise men to sin, which helps explain why Hamlet repeatedly urges Ophelia to get “to a nunnery,” saying, “wise men know well enough what / monsters you make of them” (3.1.1794).
DRUNKEN MAGISTRATES AND CRUEL TYRANTS
Excess of drinking can make magistrates tyrants, according to Jewell:
In magistrates it causeth cruelty instead
of justice, as that wise philosopher Plato perceived right well,
when he affirmed, that “a drunken man hath a tyrannous
heart,” and therefore will rule all at his pleasure, contrary to
right and reason. And certainly drunkenness maketh men
forget both law and equity: which caused king Salomon so
straitly to charge that no wine should be given unto rulers…
(305.4-10)
For a drunkard knoweth not where he is himself: if then a
man of authority should be a drunkard, alas, how might he be
a guide unto other men, standing in need of a governor him-
self? (305.15-18)
Although many argue that Claudius seems a capable king (citing his diplomacy with Norway, which is questionable given the claims of Fortinbras in the last scene), Shakespeare’s culture may have associated Claudius (and his drinking games) with corruption, tyranny, and injustice, as Jewell’s homily here suggests.
MORE ON POISON (AND THE DRINKING OF IT)
Jewell cites Seneca again, this time about the drinking of poison, another Hamlet theme:
If any man think that he may drink much
wine, and yet be well in his wits, he may as well suppose, as
Seneca saith, “that when he hath drunken poison he shall not die.” (306.4-7)
We know how drinking poison turns out for Getrude and Claudius.
DAINTY AND DELICATE FARE FOR THE RICH MAN
Jewell notes that “where the belly is stuffed with dainty fare, there the mind is oppressed with slothful sluggishness” (306.8-10).
Compare this with the description of the rich man who is ungenerous with the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16.19:
There was a certaine riche man, which was clothed in purple and fine linnen, and fared well and delicately euery day.
Here “dainty fare” and “faired well and delicately” are two ways of saying the same thing; the rich man is so well fed that his mind, “oppressed with slothful sluggishness,” neglects the beggar Lazarus.
We should also note a connection here to Hamlet’s description of Fortinbras as “delicate and tender” (4.4.2743.42), a description that is not a compliment, as the biblical meaning would be equivalent to “pampered and spoiled” (which I've blogged about before).
BERNARDO, SAINT (AND CHARACTER IN HAMLET)
St. Bernard of Clairvaux was famous for having reformed the Cistercian monastic movement, which had a number of monasteries in England before all the monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII (1536-41).
Jewell quotes him as having said, “A full belly maketh a gross understanding.”
And “Barnardo” is the first person to speak in Hamlet: “Who’s there?”
For more on the strong possibility that Shaakespeare named the first person to speak in the play after St. Bernard of Clairvaux, see the following posts:
Corrupted Reformers: Why Someone Named After Bernard Of Clairvaux Should Be First To Speak In Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/corrupted-reformers-why-someone-named.html
Reconciliations: Laertes with Hamlet, Bernard with Abelard https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/bernardo-abelard-hamlet-laertes-reconcile.html
What Bernard and Francis have to do with Shakespeare & the Bible https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-do-francisco-bernardo-have-to-do.html
WHY BERNARDO & FRANCISCO ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE IN SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/11/why-bernardo-francisco-are-not.html
How Geographical Memory May Have Encouraged the Naming of Francisco and Bernardo in Hamlet https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-geographical-memory-may-have.html
SCOURGE AND MINISTER: BERNARD AND FRANCIS
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/03/scourge-minister-bernard-francis.html
MORE DRUNKEN MADNESS
Jewell notes that in his time, “if they be not pinched by lack and poverty” (306.17) some men
have worldly wealth and riches abundant to satisfy their
unmeasurable lusts, they care not what they do. They are not
ashamed to shew their drunken faces, and to play the mad men
openly. (306.13-16)
And again, madness is an important theme in Hamlet.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
We have seen how, in Luke 16.19-31, after the rich man and Lazarus die, they change places in a reversal of fortunes: The beggar Lazarus is welcomed into heaven, and the rich man becomes a beggar in hell. Jewell suggests a similar reversal of fortune in his homily regarding drunkenness and gluttony:
He that draweth his patrimony through his throat, and eateth and drinketh more in one hour or in one day than he is able to earn in a whole week, must needs be an unthrift, and come to beggary. (306.25-28)
THEY HURT MORE THAN THEMSELVES WHO ARE A BAD EXAMPLE
Some complain that the drunkard and the glutton only hurt themselves, Jewell says (306.29-33), but he says that they are also hurtful “to the commonwealth by their example” (306.33-307.1):
Every one that meeteth them is troubled with brawl-
ing and contentious language; and ofttimes, raging in beastly
lusts like fed horses, they neigh on their neighbours' wives… (307.1-3)
Their
example is evil to them among whom they dwell; they are an
occasion of offence to many… (307.4-6)
They are unprofitable to the commonwealth ; for a
drunkard is neither fit to rule, nor to be ruled. They are a
slander to the Church or congregation of Christ; and therefore
St. Paul doth excommunicate them among whoremongers, ido-
laters, covetous* persons, and extortioners, forbidding Christians
to eat with any such. (307.11-16)
* (Claudius coveted his brother’s wife, a sin according to the commandments of Moses.)
The idea that those who drink or eat too much are a bad example relates to Hamlet’s assumption that Claudius - who hastily married his brother’s wife and assumed the throne after his brother’s death - is bad to have on Denmark’s throne: Even if he killed his brother in secret, he hasty marriage and ascension to the throne represent a very unusual series of events that would lead many to wonder if there wasn’t great corruption among Denmark’s leaders, something rotten at the top and out-of-joint, in great need of repair.
If the people of Denmark suspect Claudius may have killed his brother so as to wed Gertrude and take the throne, Laertes seems to be following the example of Claudius in preparing a secret plot of poison against Hamlet, and manipulated by Claudius to get rid of the threat of Hamlet in this way.
THE HASTE OF CLAUDIUS TO DRINK, AND HAMLET’S ABSTENTION
Jewell ends with some comments on the importance of moderation in eating and drinking, and on occasional fasting and abstinence. This might shed some light on how some people of the time might have viewed Hamlet’s refusal to drink from the cup after he scored the first hit:
Let us therefore, good people, eschew, every one of us, all
intemperancy; let us love sobriety and moderate diet, oft give
ourselves to abstinence and fasting, whereby the mind of man
is more lift up to God, more ready to all godly exercises, as
prayer, hearing and reading of God's word, to his spiritual com-
fort. Finally, whosoever regardeth the health and safety of his
own body, or wisheth always to be well in his wits, or desireth
quietness of mind, and abhorreth fury and madness; he that
would be rich and escape poverty; he that is willing to live
without the hurt of his neighbour, a profitable member of the
commonwealth, a Christian without slander of Christ and his
Church; let him avoid all riotous and excessive banqueting;
let him learn to keep such measure as behoveth him that pro-
fesseth true godliness; let him follow St. Paul's rule, and so
eat and drink to the glory and praise of God, who hath created
all things to be soberly used with thanksgiving. (307.17-32)
Hamlet earned the right to celebrate, but he abstained from drink because he knew the match was not yet over. His abstaining saved his life, at least for a short time, and that made a needed difference.
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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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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
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