The Elizabeth Jonas, and Hamlet's sea-voyage: Other Considerations
In my previous post, I connected the Jonah echo in Hamlet’s sea voyage to Elizabeth I having christened a navy ship “Elizabeth Jonas,” saying how God had saved her from her enemies - although the only enemy of Jonah is Jonah himself, fleeing his divine calling.
The records have more echoes of Hamlet:
"The 3 day of July, 1559, the Queen's Grace took her barge at Greenwich unto Woolwich to her new ship, and there it was named Elizabeth Jonas, and after her Grace had a goodly banquet, and there was great shooting of guns, and casting of fire about made for pleasure ' (Diary of Henry Machin, Camden Society, p. 203). The ship ' was so named by her Grace in remembrance of her own deliverance from the fury of her enemies, from which in one respect she was no less miraculously preserved than was the prophet Jonas from the belly of the whale' (Egerton MS. 2642, f. 150). This refers, of course, to the Jonas." [1]
In Hamlet, there are also references to banqueting and drinking, and Claudius having cannons fired in a drinking game. Naval records also record the building of many ships in anticipation of the Spanish Armada, and as Horatio describes such work in preparation for an invasion from Young Fortinbras of Norway, it's easy to imagine that boatwrights and shipbuilders and makers of cannons were required to work seven days a week, with no rest for the Sabbath (in violation of biblical law).
[Images: From a model of the Elizabeth Jonas, Science Museum, London. Left: Figurehead of dragon. Center: the model of the ship itself. Right: Stern of the (model of the) ship, as it may have appeared in 1600.Via collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk and Science Museum / Science and Society Picture Library. Fair use.]
Some may protest:
1. Elizabeth was just one person. What does it matter if she misunderstood the Jonah story, or appropriated it in a distorted way for propaganda purposes?
- But Elizabeth was queen and head of England's Church. Even her bishops would have been reluctant to correct her understanding of the Jonah story, or her application of it to herself as an analogy for having been saved from her enemies.
- Her speech upon naming the ship was published and distributed in pamphlet form, probably for propaganda purposes: Here is our queen, reading her own life story in the mirror of a biblical tale. [2]
2. Some may also protest: Elizabeth christened the ship in 1559, before Shakespeare was born! How can one expect Shakespeare and his audiences to remember that, or even to have it vaguely in the back of their minds, as they sat watching Hamlet and heard of his sea-voyage?
- In fact, British naval records note the ship’s long service, with Wikipedia noting that it "served effectively under the command of Sir Robert Southwell during the battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588":
[Image: Drawing of the Elizabeth Jonas, via Science Museum, London. Via Weapons and Warfare blog. Public domain.]
There may at times be some confusion between the service and commanders of the Elizabeth Bonaventure and the Elizabeth Jonas, but significantly, the Elizabeth Jonas may also have been the focus of public attention in 1588 when, after many English ships had been at sea for 8 months, sickness broke out and killed at least 200 of the 500 men on board. Efforts were made to clean the ship of infection (efforts that might seem primitive today), but these were unsuccessful, and the next crew also became sick:
"The Elizabeth Jonas, which hath done as well as ever any ship did in any service, hath had a great infection in her from the beginning, so as of the 500 men which she carried out, by the time we had been in Plymouth three weeks or a month, there were dead of them 200 and above; so as I was driven to set all the rest of her men ashore, to take out her ballast, and to make fires in her of wet broom, three or four days together; and so hoped thereby to have cleansed her of her infection; and thereupon got new men, very tall and able as ever I saw, and put them into her. Now the infection is broken out in greater extremity than ever it did before, and [the men] die and sicken faster than ever they did; so as I am driven of force to send her to Chatham. We all think and judge that the infection remaineth in the pitch. Sir Roger Townshend, of all the men he brought out with him, hath but one left alive; and my son Southwell likewise hath many dead."[3]
The records do not indicate any efforts to keep these deaths secret so that news would not hurt support for English military and naval defenses, so it is very possible that the Elizabeth Jonas was on people's minds decades after it was first launched.
[Image: A model of the Elizabeth Jonas, Science Museum, London. Via collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Public domain.]
So in fact, the memory of the ship was long, and frequently reaffirmed.
3. Others may protest: There is nothing in the text of “Hamlet” that explicitly points to the Elizabeth Jonas, so New Critics (and “death of the author” critics) would say, Ignore what’s not in the text.
But some (perhaps New Historicists, Julia Kristeva, following Bahktin, dialogism, intertextuality) would say that all texts are related to other texts. Shakespeare critics acknowledge this when they ask us to read Hamlet via Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy. So relating echoes of the Jonah tale in Hamlet’s sea-voyage to Elizabeth’s christening of the Elizabeth Jonas is fair game.
[Image: Portrait of Robert Burton (author of The Anatomy of Melancholy) by Gilbert Jackson, 1635. Collection: Brasenose College, University of Oxford. Via Wikipedia. Public domain.]
For Shakespeare to structure Hamlet’s sea-voyage as a retelling of Jonah seems to stress the prophetic role of princes and monarchs, to speak truth in the face of corruption and to call their subjects to greater fidelity to transcendent values. [6]
Yet sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths (“Not shriving time allowed” 5.2.52) seems particularly merciless, and violates what a character in another Shakespeare play says: “earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.” [7]
For this reason, it seems to me that in this scene, Shakespeare may be holding a mirror up to Elizabeth and her executions.
NOTES:
[1] John Knox Laughton, ed., State Papers Relating to the Defeat of The Spanish Armada Anno 1588 (1894), vol. 2, p.334. https://archive.org/details/statepapersrelat02navyuoft/page/334/mode/2up?q=Elizabeth+Jonas+&view=theater [2] Like Jesus saved from his crucifiers (the “sign of Jonah," Matthew 12:39-40), Elizabeth was similarly saved from enemies; so perhaps when Elizabeth emphasized salvation from enemies, she was reading herself not as Jonah, but as Jonah-Christ figure/victim, according to traditional Christian typology?
[3] Laughton, State Papers, vol. 2, p.96. https://archive.org/details/statepapersrelat02navyuoft/page/96/mode/2up?q=Elizabeth+Jonas+&%3Bview=theater&view=theater [4] And in fact, Christianity has long emphasized the “Threefold Office” of *all* the baptized, of priest, prophet, and king. See here and here.
[5] Portia in the courtroom scene of The Merchant of Venice, 4.1.199-203:
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God Himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.
~~~~~
~~~~~
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.
The records have more echoes of Hamlet:
"The 3 day of July, 1559, the Queen's Grace took her barge at Greenwich unto Woolwich to her new ship, and there it was named Elizabeth Jonas, and after her Grace had a goodly banquet, and there was great shooting of guns, and casting of fire about made for pleasure ' (Diary of Henry Machin, Camden Society, p. 203). The ship ' was so named by her Grace in remembrance of her own deliverance from the fury of her enemies, from which in one respect she was no less miraculously preserved than was the prophet Jonas from the belly of the whale' (Egerton MS. 2642, f. 150). This refers, of course, to the Jonas." [1]
In Hamlet, there are also references to banqueting and drinking, and Claudius having cannons fired in a drinking game. Naval records also record the building of many ships in anticipation of the Spanish Armada, and as Horatio describes such work in preparation for an invasion from Young Fortinbras of Norway, it's easy to imagine that boatwrights and shipbuilders and makers of cannons were required to work seven days a week, with no rest for the Sabbath (in violation of biblical law).
Some may protest:
1. Elizabeth was just one person. What does it matter if she misunderstood the Jonah story, or appropriated it in a distorted way for propaganda purposes?
- But Elizabeth was queen and head of England's Church. Even her bishops would have been reluctant to correct her understanding of the Jonah story, or her application of it to herself as an analogy for having been saved from her enemies.
- Her speech upon naming the ship was published and distributed in pamphlet form, probably for propaganda purposes: Here is our queen, reading her own life story in the mirror of a biblical tale. [2]
2. Some may also protest: Elizabeth christened the ship in 1559, before Shakespeare was born! How can one expect Shakespeare and his audiences to remember that, or even to have it vaguely in the back of their minds, as they sat watching Hamlet and heard of his sea-voyage?
- In fact, British naval records note the ship’s long service, with Wikipedia noting that it "served effectively under the command of Sir Robert Southwell during the battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588":
There may at times be some confusion between the service and commanders of the Elizabeth Bonaventure and the Elizabeth Jonas, but significantly, the Elizabeth Jonas may also have been the focus of public attention in 1588 when, after many English ships had been at sea for 8 months, sickness broke out and killed at least 200 of the 500 men on board. Efforts were made to clean the ship of infection (efforts that might seem primitive today), but these were unsuccessful, and the next crew also became sick:
"The Elizabeth Jonas, which hath done as well as ever any ship did in any service, hath had a great infection in her from the beginning, so as of the 500 men which she carried out, by the time we had been in Plymouth three weeks or a month, there were dead of them 200 and above; so as I was driven to set all the rest of her men ashore, to take out her ballast, and to make fires in her of wet broom, three or four days together; and so hoped thereby to have cleansed her of her infection; and thereupon got new men, very tall and able as ever I saw, and put them into her. Now the infection is broken out in greater extremity than ever it did before, and [the men] die and sicken faster than ever they did; so as I am driven of force to send her to Chatham. We all think and judge that the infection remaineth in the pitch. Sir Roger Townshend, of all the men he brought out with him, hath but one left alive; and my son Southwell likewise hath many dead."[3]
The records do not indicate any efforts to keep these deaths secret so that news would not hurt support for English military and naval defenses, so it is very possible that the Elizabeth Jonas was on people's minds decades after it was first launched.
So in fact, the memory of the ship was long, and frequently reaffirmed.
3. Others may protest: There is nothing in the text of “Hamlet” that explicitly points to the Elizabeth Jonas, so New Critics (and “death of the author” critics) would say, Ignore what’s not in the text.
But some (perhaps New Historicists, Julia Kristeva, following Bahktin, dialogism, intertextuality) would say that all texts are related to other texts. Shakespeare critics acknowledge this when they ask us to read Hamlet via Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy. So relating echoes of the Jonah tale in Hamlet’s sea-voyage to Elizabeth’s christening of the Elizabeth Jonas is fair game.
For Shakespeare to structure Hamlet’s sea-voyage as a retelling of Jonah seems to stress the prophetic role of princes and monarchs, to speak truth in the face of corruption and to call their subjects to greater fidelity to transcendent values. [6]
Yet sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths (“Not shriving time allowed” 5.2.52) seems particularly merciless, and violates what a character in another Shakespeare play says: “earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.” [7]
For this reason, it seems to me that in this scene, Shakespeare may be holding a mirror up to Elizabeth and her executions.
NOTES:
[1] John Knox Laughton, ed., State Papers Relating to the Defeat of The Spanish Armada Anno 1588 (1894), vol. 2, p.334. https://archive.org/details/statepapersrelat02navyuoft/page/334/mode/2up?q=Elizabeth+Jonas+&view=theater [2] Like Jesus saved from his crucifiers (the “sign of Jonah," Matthew 12:39-40), Elizabeth was similarly saved from enemies; so perhaps when Elizabeth emphasized salvation from enemies, she was reading herself not as Jonah, but as Jonah-Christ figure/victim, according to traditional Christian typology?
[3] Laughton, State Papers, vol. 2, p.96. https://archive.org/details/statepapersrelat02navyuoft/page/96/mode/2up?q=Elizabeth+Jonas+&%3Bview=theater&view=theater [4] And in fact, Christianity has long emphasized the “Threefold Office” of *all* the baptized, of priest, prophet, and king. See here and here.
[5] Portia in the courtroom scene of The Merchant of Venice, 4.1.199-203:
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God Himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.
~~~~~
~~~~~
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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