Linda Kay Hoff on Religious Bias in Hamlet Scholarship (part 14)

"Shakespeare quotes the Bible roughly 1,350 times, considerably more than any other playwright of the period. Ignoring religion when discussing his work is a bit like ignoring an elephant sitting on your sofa sipping a martini."
- John R. Yamamoto-Wilson (from an online comment on a post here)

From Hamlet's Choice: Hamlet—A Reformation Allegory, by Linda Kay Hoff (1990):

Hamlet is a play in which religious elements loom large. As such it has attracted an inordinate number of Catholic and Protestant apologist critics who, more than any other, "botch the words up fit to their own thought" * in trying to make of Hamlet a religious drama compatible with the preconceived religious beliefs that moved them to respond to the religious elements within Hamlet in the first place, usually with the transparent ulterior motive of aligning Shakespeare with themselves as their coreligionist. While many of these apologist critics have contributed useful explanations of details, the conclusions they have drawn from them have been tiresomely predictable. Indeed, in shedding light on separate aspects of religion in Hamlet these critics have usually been guilty of the same error Sir Francis Bacon deplored in the work of the "Schoolmen"—to wit, they have borne a "single watch candle into every corner" but have failed to set up at the center "one great light, or branching candlestick of lights.

Worse yet, in past years apologist critics have written so much unabashedly dogmatic drivel about this play that it seemed, for a while, that considerations of Hamlet which treat extensively of its religious aspects were doomed to bear the stigma of their stubborn, unintellectual subjectivity. For it was tacitly assumed that critics who dwelled on the religious aspects of the play were doing so because they themselves were "religious," an adjective that often implies a lack of both objectivity and intellectual rigor. The upshot of all this was that many secular critics were loath to give the religious elements within Hamlet their due, perhaps because they feared that doing so might cause them, too, to be suspected of religiosity.

But this is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and with the New Historicism the tide is turning—as well it should. For it is impossible to ignore the religious elements within “Hamlet,” and the simple fact that Shakespeare made many of them extremely conspicuous must indicate that they are to be considered meaningful…

* Horatio on observing people's reactions to Ophelia's madness (line 2755, Internet Shakespeare edition from U. Victoria; or 4.5.12 from Folger edition.).

Linda Kay Hoff's book is fascinating for its careful exploration of possible references in Hamlet to debates regarding the Book of Revelation (some more convincing than others), but may disappoint some in that its focus is often limited to the play as a reformation allegory, rather than the play in the context of its many other biblical allusions. I highly recommend the book, but it is somewhat difficult (expensive) to obtain if not through a library. It should be more widely available (and perhaps made less expensive in an eBook edition).

One might say that Linda Kay Hoff, while claiming to be objective, has a Protestant allegorical bias which perhaps imposes too much allegorical reading on a text of a play that doesn't quite justify it.

One may also say that inasmuch as she strives to read a Protestant apocalyptic allegory in the play - an allegory that is pro-Protestant, critical of corruption in the Catholic church - to this extent one might claim that she has a Protestant bias.

Yet her words above ring true.

[Linda Kay Hoff attending a production of Hamlet at Shakespeare's Globe. Image (cropped) accessible to the general public via Flickr. Fair use.]

Here are two reviews of Linda Kay Hoff's book, both of which recognize merit in her work but also note the books limitations:

Hamlet's Choice: Hamlet: A Reformation Allegory by Linda Kay Hoff
Review by: Thomas Dabbs
Source: South Atlantic Review, Vol. 56, No. 3, Convention Program Issue (Sep., 1991), pp. 106-108
Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3200034

Hamlet's Choice: 'Hamlet': A Reformation Allegory by Linda Kay Hoff
Review by: Marion Lomax
Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 21, Politics, Patronage and Literature in England 1558-1658 Special Number (1991), pp. 351-352
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3508529

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Series on Religious (and a few other) Biases in Shakespeare Scholarship:
1. Biases & Assumptions Influence What We Notice, Seek, or Neglect - 11 January, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/01/biases-assumptions-influence-what-we.html

2. Religious Bias in Shakespeare/Hamlet Scholarship - 18 January, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/01/part-2-factors-contributing-to.html

3. Victors Wrote the Histories of Shakespeare and Francis of Assisi - 25 January, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/01/victors-wrote-history-of-shakespeare.html

4. Biblical Seeds of Secular Shakespeare Bias - 1 February, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/02/biblical-seeds-of-secular-shakespeare.html

5. Catholic Bias in Simon Augustus Blackmore - 8 February, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/02/catholic-bias-in-simon-augustus.html

6. Nietzschean & Christian-Mythical Bias in G. Wilson Knight - 15 February, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/02/nietzschean-christian-mythical-bias-in.html

7. Roland Frye's Protestant Bias - 22 February, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/02/roland-fryes-protestant-bias.html

8. Gatekeeping and Religious Turns in Shakespeare Scholarship - 1 March, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/03/gatekeeping-and-religious-turns-in.html

9. Honigmann, Hammerschmidt−Hummel, and Moses' Shoes - 8 March, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/03/taking-off-shoes-in-presence-of.html

10. Protestant Bias in Arthur McGee's 1987 book, "The Elizabethan Hamlet" - 15 March, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/03/protestant-bias-in-arthur-mcgees-1987.html

11. Catholic Bias in Clare Asquith's 2005 book, "Shadowplay" - 22 March, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/03/catholic-bias-in-clare-asquiths-2005.html

12. Protestant and authoritarian bias in Roy W. Battenhouse - 29 March, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/03/battenhouses-authoritarian-protestant.html

13. Christopher Devlin's Catholic Bias in Hamlet's Divinity - 5 April, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/04/christopher-devlins-catholic-bias-in.html

14. Linda Kay Hoff on Religious Bias in Hamlet Scholarship - 12 April, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/04/linda-kay-hoff-on-religious-bias-in.html
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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 point out how the Bible and religion may have 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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