Hamlet, beggar-prince: Horatio's allusion to Lazarus and requiem Mass in 5.2 (part 15)
Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! (5.2.3848-50)
Most audiences unfamiliar with the text alluded to would miss it. The translated Latin text reads,
May the angels lead you into paradise;
may the martyrs receive you at your arrival
and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem.
May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus,
once (a) poor (man), may you have eternal rest.
This is the only allusion to both Lazarus and liturgical rites that England omitted from older Catholic rites. English or Protestant scholars may ignore or downplay this allusion to the requiem Mass. Catholic scholars perhaps prematurely accept this as evidence of a secretly Catholic Shakespeare. Saxo Grammaticus and Belleforest do not allude to Lazarus or the requiem Mass; why would Shakespeare include this, when Protestants believed prayers for the dead are of no use?
[Left: Angels take the soul of beggar Lazarus. Right: Lazarus and his child-like soul (to enter the kingdom, you must become like a child), with Abraham and other souls in heaven. Image: Codex Aureus Epternacensis (Golden Gospels), Illuminated Manuscript; Parable of the Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus, Folio 78 recto, circa 1035-1040. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg. Public Domain, courtesy of The Yorck Project, via Wikimedia.]
SOME REFLECTIONS:
It is entirely possible that Shakespeare implies here (with the beggar, Hamlet) and in the previous scene (with Laertes begging the "churlish priest" for more ceremony) that the burial rites were impoverished, and that Catholics especially were left as beggars for more of the prayers for the dead, who are deserving of remembrance, or perhaps to whom we owe debts of gratitude, and to whom we have something like a duty of remembrance.
Yes, the official Protestant position opposed Catholic abuses associated with the selling of indulgences (and although I was raised in the Catholic faith, I recognize and oppose those abuses too).
DID PROTESTANT ENGLAND GET IT RIGHT IN REJECTING PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD?
OR DID THEY GO TOO FAR IN THEIR REFORMS?
What happens to the dead after death? The Christian view of Jesus is that he lives on in the church, and in all those who live in harmony with his teachings. If Christians believe we are made in God's image, called to be Christ-like, and that Jesus was the first of many daughters and sons of God, then we might consider the implications of an afterlife, even for nonbelievers.
Regardless of our belief or unbelief regarding religion or an afterlife, we might consider that some aspects of the dead, or the influences of their life, for good or ill, live on in the living. Shakespeare suggests suggests as much in the eulogy that Mark Anthony gives in Julius Caesar:
The evil that men do lives after them;
the good is oft interred with their bones.
If the work of a parent or teacher or loved one was flawed or incomplete, isn't it left up to those who survive to work out the flaws, or complete what was undone? In the Bible, John 4:36-38 speaks of how we sow seeds that others will harvest. From the 1599 Geneva translation:
36 And he that reapeth, receiveth reward, and gathered fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth might rejoice together.
37 For herein is the saying true, that one soweth and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that, whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.
This is analogous to the "communion of saints": Those gone before us have labored, but their labors are unfinished, so we join our own labors to theirs, and in that way, are "in communion" with them, sharing in a larger spiritual body in the world.
Luke 3:17, Matthew 3:12, and Matthew 24-30 speak of good seeds and weeds, and the work of separating the good grain from the weeds and chaff, and burning the weeds and chaff. Isn't this the work of life, taking what we have been given by those before us, and improving upon it when we can?
In that sense, isn't the work of purgatory, and the purging of the sins of the dead, a work performed by the living, tasked with purifying what we've been given by those who have gone before us?
Perhaps we need to view such work as a kind of living prayer. One does not have to talk to God to pray. One can do good work as a kind of prayer. When St. Paul says to pray always, maybe he doesn't mean mumble to God while washing dishes or taking out the trash. Maybe some kinds of work can itself be a prayer, sometimes a prayer that redeems the dead? (I recognize that some Protestants may disagree, citing that we are saved by faith alone, and not by works. And yet works, too, do have an important place in Protestant theology as well.)
SHAKESPEARE KNEW HIS PLAYS HAD RELIGIOUSLY MIXED AUDIENCES
So it seems at least possible that Shakespeare, knowing his audience was mixed in their religious allegiances, may have included an allusion to the requiem Mass because it was a kind of rich gift, from Horatio (like a generous rich man, still rich with life, taking pity on his dead friend). In friendship, Horatio spontaneously utters his allusion to "In Paradisum," a gift not to the beggar Lazarus, but to the beggar Hamlet.
This is a text that many Catholics of the time knew by heart, so although this is a play and in that sense very artificial and theatrical, for a friend to utter this allusion over the body of a dead friend would seem at least somewhat natural, and at least historically accurate for an older, Catholic Denmark. Although Saxo Grammaticus and Belleforest omit such allusions, it could make sense, for a religiously mixed audience, to include it.
CONSIDER THE LAZARUS/IN PARADISUM ALLUSION IN 5.2 AS A RORSCHACH BLOT, OR A CLOUD
Some English and Protestant scholars may ignore or downplay this allusion to the requiem Mass, perhaps because they are too invested in protecting the idea of Shakespeare as a good Englishman and faithful member of England's church, or else because they do not believe the Catholic-Protestant squabbles, arrests, and executions of the time have much significance for this play, which, to them, was written for all ages more than to address the narrow interests of its time.
Similarly, some Catholic scholars may prematurely accept such allusions to liturgical rites rejected by the English Church as evidence of Shakespeare as secretly Catholic.
In Hamlet's exchange with Polonius regarding the interpretation of cloud shapes (3.2.2247-55), Shakespeare demonstrates in part that our interpretations often show as much or more about us than they do about the cloud-shapes we interpret, like Rorschach blots. This is also true of scholarly bias.
The inclusion of this allusion to the requiem Mass is significant, given that the play was written at a time when there was still tension between Catholics and Protestants, and when Catholics were still at risk of being fined for refusing communion, or suspected of treason, arrested, and executed.
But the significance of this allusion is not limited to guesswork about the author's intentions. The D.H. Lawrence poem, "Song of a Man Who Has Come Through," which I've quoted in the past, begins,
Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
The poet or playwright doesn't shape a poem or play entirely by conscious intention, but rather, by allowing much greater cultural winds to blow through themselves and through the work. In that sense, the full significance of an allusion to the requiem Mass in Hamlet 5.2 is not merely a matter of asking Shakespeare about what he intended. The significance is up to all of us who ponder it. Scholars with a Protestant bias, in favor of Shakespeare as Protestant England's national poet, may downplay the requiem Mass allusion; scholars who hope to claim Shakespeare for the Roman Catholic team may prematurely assume that such allusions prove the playwright's institutional-religious allegiances, when perhaps that mystery is not so easily plucked.
HOW IS THE DYING HAMLET A POOR BEGGAR?
One might consider Hamlet a beggar in many ways, not only because he is the character most often referred to as "poor" or as "beggar" or "begging," but also because of yet more evidence in the play:
- A beggar to heaven: Hamlet as a mourner of his father's death, and as ashamed of his mother's hasty remarriage to his uncle; becomes a a beggar to heaven. In a certain sense, we are always beggars to God, or to the forces of the universe. In 1.2, Hamlet repeatedly cries out, "O God" (316, 334, 386), and while it may be easy to dismiss these as mere expressions of extreme frustration, we should not discount the fact that Hamlet's impulse in these moments may be as if to cry out to a transcendent God. That is what he is literally doing, so to discount the literal in favor of merely its opposite would be a mistake.
- Beggar to Horatio: When Horatio calls him "my lord" and refers to
himself as Hamlet's servant in 1.2, Hamlet replies that he'd rather
change those names with Horatio (with Hamlet as servant and Horatio as
his lord), humbling himself, demonstrating what Jesus says is necessary for leadership, that those who would be first must be servant, a theme repeated in Mark 9:35; and that those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:11-12); and demonstrated in John 13:4-15, when Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.
- Beggar to Ophelia: Hamlet and Ophelia are beggars to love and to one another in love. This is clear in his bad love poetry and "almost all the holy vows of heaven." In the tale of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, the beggar is in the humble position of begging, and the rich man is the one full of himself and lacking compassion. Although Hamlet is prince, he humbles himself to Ophelia in his love poetry, referring to her as "To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia" (2.2), painting her as heavenly, and himself as a humble worshiper.
- Beggar to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: In 2.2.319-23, Hamlet names himself as a beggar and begs his sometime-friends to be truthful with him:
Hamlet: Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you;
and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not
sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
come, deal justly with me. Come, come, nay, speak.
In
the end they disappoint him; although they confess they were sent for,
they continue to serve Claudius and try to curry favor with Denmark's
throne, rather than being faithful to their friend.
- Beggar to Horatio II: Hamlet also praises Horatio's good qualities in 3.2.1904-25 as if he feels greatly in Horatio's debt.
- Beggar to Gertrude: In the closet scene, Hamlet tells his mother that Claudius murdered his father, and asks his mother to keep his secret, that he is not truly mad, but mad in craft, pretending. She keeps his secret.
- Beggar to Laertes: In 5.1, at Ophelia's grave, Hamlet listens to Laertes speaking of how great his love and grief are for his dead sister. Laertes also has harsh words for the person who caused Ophelia's death, which Laertes clearly believes was Hamlet, especially inasmuch as Laertes has been led to believe this by Claudius in conversations of which Hamlet is unaware. Laertes puts his hands on Hamlet's throat, and Hamlet warns him (begs him?) to be careful because there is "something dangerous" in him, so Laertes would be wise to be careful (5.1.3456-59). Soon thereafter, Hamlet asks Laertes, "What is the reason that you use me thus? / I loved you ever" (5.1.3488-89). In this question, Hamlet is a beggar, begging for understanding.
It is clear to the audience that Laertes blames Hamlet for his father's death and his sister's, but Hamlet has been away, and he has had a brush with death on the ship to England and the pirate ship. He knows he never intended to kill Polonius, and Gertrude and Claudius know, but Laertes does not.
In 5.2.3678-96, Hamlet begs
the pardon of Laertes for having caused him harm by accidentally killing Polonius. Some scholars criticize this
apology as being disingenuous, because Hamlet intended to stab the whoever it was behind the arras, assuming it was Claudius. But before Claudius and the court before the duel, Hamlet doesn't want to admit that his intended target was Claudius.
After killing Polonius, Hamlet had said it pleased God to
punish Polonius with Hamlet and Hamlet with the death of Polonius. And
yet Hamlet after his sea-voyage is emerging from his spiritual descent
into madness and sin, and sees his own image as a man who lost a father
in Laertes who also lost a father at Hamlet's hand. So Hamlet begs
Laertes' pardon, which Laertes rejects with a lie: Laertes claims he will treat it
as love and will not wrong it. But he will. Later, after Gertrude, Hamlet, and
Laertes have been poisoned, Laertes finally confesses the plot and begs
for an exchange of forgiveness with Hamlet, and Hamlet complies.
So in this way, Hamlet and Laertes are beggars to one another for forgiveness.
- Beggar to Laertes for forgiveness: In 5.2 3678-96, Hamlet begs the pardon of Laertes for hurting him. Some scholars criticize this apology for being disingenuous, because Hamlet intended to stab the unseen Polonius behind the arras; but before Claudius and the court, Hamlet doesn't want to admit that his intended target was Claudius, or to admit that, after killing Polonius, he had said it pleased God to punish Polonius with Hamlet and Hamlet with the death of Polonius. And yet Hamlet after his sea-voyage is emerging from his spiritual descent into madness and sin, and sees his own image as a man who lost a father in Laertes who also lost a father at Hamlet's hand. So Hamlet begs Laertes' pardon, which Laertes rejects with a lie that he will treat it as love and will not wrong it. Later, after Gertrude, Hamlet, and Laertes have been poisoned, Laertes finally confesses the plot and begs for an exchange of forgiveness with Hamlet, and Hamlet complies.
- Beggar again to Horatio III: Hamlet (in 5.2.3830-5) begs Horatio:
Oh, God, Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story.
In 5.2.3822-3, Hamlet tells Horatio,
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead,
Thou liv'st. Report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Some might conclude the dying Hamlet still has a big ego and wants his name remembered honorably. But it's also possible that Hamlet knows: If his cause is reported truthfully, that may help Denmark repent of the lies and destruction it suffered under Claudius.
- Beggar again to God?
After his sea-voyage, Hamlet is more aware of God, or "Providence," as having had a hand in his fate:
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will. (5.2.3509-10)
Hamlet does not receive any of the last sacraments, the lack of which the ghost seems to believe sealed his fate in purgatory or hell. And yet his exchange of forgiveness with Laertes simulates a last confession.
He has killed Polonius, been unkind to Ophelia, sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths, and killed his uncle Claudius. If by these things he might be considered a grievous sinner, he is perhaps a beggar to God for forgiveness at the end of his life. Hamlet doesn't address pius prayers to God in his last words, and yet his last words are full of charity for Horatio and for fixing Denmark's corruption, which might include how Fortinbras and son were treated. If his actions speak louder than his words, perhaps his actions are a prayer of one who has repented of his madness and indecision?
In these ways, perhaps it is appropriate for Horatio to associate the text of "In Paradisum" with Hamlet, given its allusion to the beggar Lazarus, "once poor," but rich in the kingdom of heaven.
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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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