Hamlet’s Unnamed Ghost of Jonah, and Elizabethan Executions
In Hamlet, Shakespeare adapts the Saxo Grammaticus source tale by shortening the hero’s sea-voyage to England, having Hamlet change mode of transportation mid-sea to a pirate ship, like Jonah changing from a ship to the belly of a fish. I have written about this before, and about the Christian typology that viewed Jonah as prefiguring Jesus in the tomb.
[Image: Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), "Jonah and the Whale," 1621. Museum Kunstpalast. Public domain. Via Wikipedia.]
Yet in Hamlet, Jonah goes unnamed.
Shakespeare is more explicit about other allusions in the play, as to Jephthah and other biblical figures. Yet he is strangely silent/implicit on others such as Jonah.
Why leave Jonah unnamed? Is this merely an aesthetic/dramatic choice, or more?
(More on that later.)
Shakespeare also combines these Jonah elements of the sea-voyage with other elements, such as Hamlet’s discovery of Claudius’ letter ordering England to execute him, and his changing of the letter so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die instead.
This may offend those who prefer for Hamlet’s character to be unblemished: He sends his former school-friends to their deaths, when they may be innocent of the plot to kill him!
But Shakespeare’s priority may have been less to develop an idealized hero than to hold a mirror up to England and its monarch, Elizabeth.
In 1559, Elizabeth had christened a ship in her navy the Elizabeth Jonas, with a speech about how God had saved her from her enemies.* This is a strange detail: In the Jonah tale, the only enemy Jonah must overcome is himself, for trying to flee God’s call to be a prophet.
[Image: A model of the Elizabeth Jonas, via Science Museum, London. Via Weapons and Warfare blog. Public domain.]
Shakespeare doesn’t contradict Elizabeth’s revisionist reading, but accommodates it by placing Hamlet’s two former friends (now spies) on the ship. Hamlet suspects that they may be complicit in the plot. In case this is true, he acts preemptively to save his own life, and changes the letter so that his former friends are killed.
As Elizabeth might have done: She had Essex executed, and he was her former favorite. Her administration discovered letters and an assassination plot associated with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots; she had Mary executed.
If Shakespeare is holding up a kind of mirror for Elizabeth in the Jonah echo of Hamlet’s sea-voyage, as well as the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as a kind of mirror of Elizabeth's executions, then it was probably better for him to be subtle rather than explicit about parallels.
Another popular play of the time, A Looking Glass for London and England, mentions a mirror in its ambitious title, and its Jonah figure was literal and explicit. But that play tries too hard to defend Tudor monarchy: It includes a king who considers an incestuous marriage but is saved when his bride is struck by lightning. This seems intended to justify the divorce of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, from an allegedly incestuous marriage to his first wife so that he can marry Elizabeth’s mother. Such a play may win favor with the throne, but it’s hardly the sort of mirror a prophet would hold up to a monarch so that she might repent of her sins.
* Regarding the Elizabeth Jonas as an Early Modern connection to the Jonah story, I'm indebted to Hannibal Hamlin for an essay/chapter he wrote about A Looking Glass for London and England.
See
Part III, chapter 10: Staging prophecy: A Looking Glass for London and the Book of Jonah,"
in Enacting the Bible in Medieval and Early Modern Drama
Eds. Eva Von Contzen and Chanita Goodblatt,
Manchester University Press, 2020.
~~~~~
INDEX OF OTHER MAIN POSTS ON JONAH AND HAMLET:
1. THE GHOST OF JONAH HAUNTS SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET - 23 April, 2018
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-ghost-of-jonah-haunts-hamlet.html
2. Hamlet's Sea-voyage, Christ in the Tomb, and "the Sign of Jonah" - 16 April, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/04/hamlets-sea-voyage-christ-in-tomb-and.html
3. Hamlet’s Unnamed Ghost of Jonah, and Elizabethan Executions - 3 May, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/hamlets-unnamed-ghost-of-jonah-and.html
4. The Elizabeth Jonas, and Hamlet's sea-voyage: Other Considerations - 5 May, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-elizabeth-jonas-and-hamlets-sea.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
Yet in Hamlet, Jonah goes unnamed.
Shakespeare is more explicit about other allusions in the play, as to Jephthah and other biblical figures. Yet he is strangely silent/implicit on others such as Jonah.
Why leave Jonah unnamed? Is this merely an aesthetic/dramatic choice, or more?
(More on that later.)
Shakespeare also combines these Jonah elements of the sea-voyage with other elements, such as Hamlet’s discovery of Claudius’ letter ordering England to execute him, and his changing of the letter so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die instead.
This may offend those who prefer for Hamlet’s character to be unblemished: He sends his former school-friends to their deaths, when they may be innocent of the plot to kill him!
But Shakespeare’s priority may have been less to develop an idealized hero than to hold a mirror up to England and its monarch, Elizabeth.
In 1559, Elizabeth had christened a ship in her navy the Elizabeth Jonas, with a speech about how God had saved her from her enemies.* This is a strange detail: In the Jonah tale, the only enemy Jonah must overcome is himself, for trying to flee God’s call to be a prophet.
Shakespeare doesn’t contradict Elizabeth’s revisionist reading, but accommodates it by placing Hamlet’s two former friends (now spies) on the ship. Hamlet suspects that they may be complicit in the plot. In case this is true, he acts preemptively to save his own life, and changes the letter so that his former friends are killed.
As Elizabeth might have done: She had Essex executed, and he was her former favorite. Her administration discovered letters and an assassination plot associated with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots; she had Mary executed.
If Shakespeare is holding up a kind of mirror for Elizabeth in the Jonah echo of Hamlet’s sea-voyage, as well as the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as a kind of mirror of Elizabeth's executions, then it was probably better for him to be subtle rather than explicit about parallels.
Another popular play of the time, A Looking Glass for London and England, mentions a mirror in its ambitious title, and its Jonah figure was literal and explicit. But that play tries too hard to defend Tudor monarchy: It includes a king who considers an incestuous marriage but is saved when his bride is struck by lightning. This seems intended to justify the divorce of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, from an allegedly incestuous marriage to his first wife so that he can marry Elizabeth’s mother. Such a play may win favor with the throne, but it’s hardly the sort of mirror a prophet would hold up to a monarch so that she might repent of her sins.
* Regarding the Elizabeth Jonas as an Early Modern connection to the Jonah story, I'm indebted to Hannibal Hamlin for an essay/chapter he wrote about A Looking Glass for London and England.
See
Part III, chapter 10: Staging prophecy: A Looking Glass for London and the Book of Jonah,"
in Enacting the Bible in Medieval and Early Modern Drama
Eds. Eva Von Contzen and Chanita Goodblatt,
Manchester University Press, 2020.
~~~~~
INDEX OF OTHER MAIN POSTS ON JONAH AND HAMLET:
1. THE GHOST OF JONAH HAUNTS SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET - 23 April, 2018
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-ghost-of-jonah-haunts-hamlet.html
2. Hamlet's Sea-voyage, Christ in the Tomb, and "the Sign of Jonah" - 16 April, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/04/hamlets-sea-voyage-christ-in-tomb-and.html
3. Hamlet’s Unnamed Ghost of Jonah, and Elizabethan Executions - 3 May, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/hamlets-unnamed-ghost-of-jonah-and.html
4. The Elizabeth Jonas, and Hamlet's sea-voyage: Other Considerations - 5 May, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-elizabeth-jonas-and-hamlets-sea.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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