Blasphemy in Hamlet 5.1 Emmaus figures: Part 1
Another important Easter allusion in Hamlet 5.1 involves Jesus appearing to disciples on the road to Emmaus.
[Image:Caravaggio, "Supper at Emmaus," 1601, in the National Gallery, London. Public domain, via Wikipedia.]
I have blogged about this before, but it is worth another look: The allusion is hidden in plain sight in plot elements, but never explicitly named.
Four years ago I wrote this:
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In the Luke 24:13-35 Emmaus story:
(1) mentor and fearless leader Jesus is crucified;
(2) two troubled disciples head to Emmaus (D to E);
(3) a stranger joins them, cheers them, explains scripture;
(4) they recognize the stranger as Jesus in breaking of bread.
In Hamlet,
(1) mentor and fearless leader King Hamlet is murdered;
(2) two troubled Danes (Hamlet and Horatio) head to Elsinore (D to E);
(3) a stranger/gravedigger cheers them with wit,
explains death & decay, and they find a strange skull;
(4) they recognize skull as that of Yorick,
and the gravedigger as Yorick’s drinking buddy and kindred spirit,
who was once figuratively baptized by Yorick in wine.
(Note that in Jn 13:9, Peter asks to be washed entirely by Jesus;
the gravedigger gets washed in a flagon of Rhenish wine.)
Instead of the ghost of King Hamlet appearing,
Yorick, affectionate surrogate father, appears to Hamlet’s mind’s eye,
a fellow of "infinite jest," like a god of clowns/jesters/fools,
his spirit & wit incarnate in the clown/gravedigger.
Instead of broken bread (a Last Supper action),
it’s poured wine (another Last Supper action).
Yorick fits the Emmaus structure;
Hamlet’s father does not.
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This switch from the dead king/ghost as the expected Emmaus manifestation to appear, to Yorick instead, is an important surprise: Yorick has not been mentioned up to this point in the play, although Hamlet sometimes exhibits qualities of a court fool.
To what I wrote four years ago, I would now add:
- They meet a stranger (gravedigger/clown),
who doesn’t recognize the prince,
who doesn’t recognize a skull,
so there are three strangers: Skull, Clown and Prince.
I will explore some implications of the three strangers in future posts.
But as with the Jonah allusion (explored in the last two posts, here and here), why would Emmaus go unnamed in this scene?
Being too explicit may have been viewed as blasphemous or heretical on at least two counts. I’ll explain one below, and another in my next post.
In the graveyard scene, the way the Emmaus parallels are set up (see above), the expected Christ figure is switched from the murdered King Hamlet,
to the fool of “infinite jest,” Yorick, and his drinking buddy-gravedigger.
This asserts: The dead king is not the Christ-figure you seek. Yorick is.
The fools/clowns are the Emmaus strangers in whom Hamlet glimpses the divine (“infinite jest”) and the memory of a more caring surrogate father-figure, Yorick.
Being too explicit about the Emmaus echo may have evoked the ire of the Master of the Revels and the censors: They may have found it inappropriate (blasphemous) to make clowns and fools Christ figures. [1]
My next post will explore another reason why making the Emmaus echo explicit may have been heretical.
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NOTE:
[1] It may have been acceptable for St. Paul in 1 Cor 4:10 to speak of being fools for Christ. But St. Paul never said the stranger on the road to Emmaus was a fool or clown.
- Among Catholics especially, it may have been laudable for St. Francis to call himself “God’s fool.”
(Also recall: the first character on stage in Hamlet is a sentinel named after Francis.) But like St. Paul, St. Francis never claimed the stranger on the road to Emmaus was a fool or clown.
- But although the Holy Fool is an ancient tradition, offering the gravedigger-clown and Yorick explicitly as manifestations of the Emmaus stranger (Jesus Christ, second person of the Trinity) may have seemed too blasphemous or heretical for the censors, as well as for the internal censor of a writer like Shakespeare (who, a time of censorship, would undoubtedly exercise some self-censorship).
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OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
INTRODUCTION: “Emmaus in Hamlet,” 21 May, 2018:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/05/emmaus-in-hamlet-in-emmaus-story-1.html
"Emmaus in Merchant of Venice," 7 May, 2018:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/emmaus-in-merchant-of-venice-in.html
1. Blasphemy in Hamlet 5.1 Emmaus figures: Part 1
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/blasphemy-and-heresy-in-hamlets-emmaus.html
2. Heresy in Hamlet 5.1 Emmaus figures: Part 2
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/heresy-in-hamlet-51-emmaus-figures-part.html
3. From Fear & Power to Fools & Affection (Emmaus in Hamlet 5.1, Part 3)
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/from-fear-power-to-fools-affection.html
4. Why Rhenish, not Bread? Emmaus in Hamlet 5.1, Part 4
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/why-rhenish-not-bread-emmaus-in-hamlet.html
5. Hamlet, Emmaus, Eucharistic Controversy, and Semiotics: Part 5
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/hamlet-emmaus-eucharistic-controversy.html
6. Emmaus Key Change in Hamlet & Merchant of Venice (Emmaus in Hamlet, part 6)
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/emmaus-key-change-in-hamlet-merchant-of.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 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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