13 Handles on Hamlet's Mousetrap
the play-within-the-play?
Thirteen handles
(see also more lengthy endnotes corresponding to numbered list):
1. Hamlet asks the first player if he can play “The Murder of Gonzago.” This points to Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino; whose wife was Eleonora Gonzaga, and who was marginalized (like Essex and Lord Strange, and poisoned like Strange).[1]
— Hamlet says he will do this by reproducing events like his father’s murder with the help of the players.[2]
3. This conscience-trap echoes the prophet Nathan catching King David’s conscience in a story, after David’s affair with Bathsheba and arranging for the death of her husband.[3]
— Later in Gertrude’s closet scene, it’s clear that Hamlet wants his mother to repent, as Nathan wanted King David to repent.[4]
5. Hamlet calls it “The Mousetrap,” which some identify as Augustine’s analogy of Crucifixion as a mousetrap to catch Satan.[5]
— Problem: Claudius is not Satan. He is a human being, an unrepentant sinner, a reprobate.
6. Hamlet says the duke’s wife’s name was Baptista.
— Not the name of the murdered historical duke’s wife, but rather, Battista was wife of a predecessor of the duke. So Hamlet and Shakespeare distort history just to include the name Baptista.[6]
Center: Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536), originally identified as Catherine Parr, but now recognized as Catherine of Aragon. Unidentified painter. 16th Century. Lambeth Palace. Public domain, via Wikimedia.
Right: Henry VIII of England (1491-1547), circa 1509. Attributed to Meynnart Wewyck. Denver Art Museum. Public domain. Image via Wikimedia].
9. The murder in the play-within-the-play by a man who woos and weds the victim’s widow also echoes the murder of Mary Stuart’s husband by her future (next) husband.[9]
11. Hamlet during the playlet is verbose, animated. Ophelia comments about this. His antics seem to sabotage his efforts to get Claudius to watch the whole playlet. After Hamlet says that the murderer will woo his victim’s wife, Claudius rises and asks for light, leaving the room.[11]
12. After The Mousetrap, Hamlet jokes (irony) with Rosencrantz about his mother’s astonishment, implying that he, Hamlet, is like the boy Jesus, preaching to elders in the synagogue, to their amazement and his mother’s.[12]
13. Michael Mack claims (in an essay, here) that the whole play, Hamlet, seems constructed in a way that catches the conscience of the audience.[13]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES:
[1] All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/
— For “Gonzaga,” see 2.2.564, 3.2.263,288,290.
— For more on Francesco Maria I della Rovere (1490 – 1538):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Maria_I_della_Rovere,_Duke_of_Urbino (accessed 1/22/2023).
— Some claim the murderer-poisoner of the historical duke may have also been of the Gonzaga family, perhaps a Gonzaga nephew, making “The Murder of Gonzago” more about the name of the murderer, perhaps, and the wife, than about the poisoned duke.
— For an interesting (though somewhat outdated) consideration, see G. Bullough’s 1935 article, “The Murder of Gonzago” in The Modern Language Review, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct., 1935), pp. 433-444 (12 pages)
https://doi.org/10.2307/3716252
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3716252
— For more on Lord Strange, who died of poison, like Rovere, see
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/04/welcome-lazarus-lord-stranges-men-for.html
[2] “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.” (2.2.633-4)
— Also see Hamlet’s fuller explanation of how this will work with the help of the players:
HAMLET: I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks;
I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench,
I know my course….” (2.2.617-627)
[3] For the tale of King David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and the prophet Nathan, see 2 Samuel 11-12; 1 Kings 1-2.
— A popular play of the era by George Peele was based on the tale of King David and Bathsheba, and Bible reading was very popular; Bibles in English translation were available for the first time to Shakespeare’s generation and that of his parents, so Bibles were best sellers. Many playgoers in Shakespeare’s time would have noticed this allusion.
— Yet Hamlet does not seek the repentance of his uncle as Nathan did of King David. Hamlet has vowed to the ghost that he will avenge his death, so he only seeks proof that Claudius was the murderer, so he can kill his uncle in revenge.
— This creates tension between biblical expectations and the need for revenge in a revenge play.
[4] Many have noted that the play-within-the-play begins by attempting to catch the queen’s conscience. This begins at 3.2.174-255 with Hamlet telling Ophelia that a woman’s love is as brief as the prologue.
— It continues with the playlet: an ailing king telling his wife that after his death, she should take another husband (3.2.199), and the wife claiming she never could.
— Hamlet asks his mother how she likes the play, and she answers, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks (3.2.254).
— This means that more words and lines of the play-within-the-play (before Claudius interrupts and ends it) are spent catching Gertrude’s conscience than are spent catching that of Claudius.
[5] For “The Mousetrap,” see 3.2.261 (Folger) or 3.2.232 (Arden).
— Editor Harold Jenkins, in the Arden note for line 232, writes,
“J. Doebler (SQ XXXIII, 161 ff.) discusses the theological symbolism of the mousetrap, as in Augustine’s allusion to the cross of Christ as the mousetrap of the devil, who is trapped by his own corruption. The analogy with Claudius is pertinent;”
and as Jenkins lived in a time when scholars were sensitive about certain claims regarding literary Christ-figures, he adds,
“but we had better stop short of seeing Hamlet therefore as a Christ-figure.”
In this scene, yes; by the last line of the play, debatable.
— Augustine of Hippo: “The Devil exulted when Christ died, and by that very death of Christ the Devil was overcome: he took food, as it were, from a trap. He gloated over the death as if he were appointed a deputy of death; that in which he rejoiced became a prison for him. The cross of the Lord became a trap for the Devil; the death of the Lord was the food by which he was ensnared. And behold, our Lord Jesus Christ rose again.”
— See Thomas L. McDonald (accessed 1/22/2023): https://weirdcatholic.com/2019/03/25/the-devils-mousetrap-an-image-of-the-annunciation/
[6] For Hamlet’s reference to the duke’s wife as “Baptista,” see 3.2.263.
— This points to the name of Battista Sforza (1446 – 1472), the wife of a predecessor to the duke, Federico da Montefeltro, and not to the name of the wife of Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (wife, Eleonora Gonzaga, 1493 – 1550). Hamlet distorts history for the sake of referring to the name Baptista, which points to John the Baptist, an important biblical allusion.
[7] See Mark 6:12-26 for the story of John the Baptist, imprisoned and beheaded after condemning the marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother’s divorced wife. See also Matthew 14:1-13.
— In the New Variorum edition (1877), the footnote for “Baptista” (in its line 229) includes divergent opinions on whether Baptista could be a feminine name, but in 1783, Joseph Ritson (1752-1803) was certain the name was an allusion to John the Baptist. See https://archive.org/details/newvariorumediti11shak/page/255/mode/1up?q=baptista&view=theater
[8] While their father was still alive, Henry’s older brother and heir to the throne, Arthur, married a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon. She had been betrothed to Arthur when she was at the age of three. Arthur died after five months of marriage. Henry and Catherine needed special dispensation from Rome, since she was Henry’s brother’s widow. See Jim Blackburn for a simple explanation (accessed 1/22/2023) of the historical dispensation given to Henry and Catherine:
https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-did-henry-viii-need-a-dispensation-to-marry-his-brothers-widow-catherine-of-aragon
— Later, in order to marry his mistress Anne Boleyn, Henry wanted an annulment from his first marriage to Catherine, and when Rome would not grant it, he broke from Rome, causing social/civil strife between Protestants and Catholics. By writing (or re-writing) a story about a king who marries his dead brother's widow, Shakespeare may have been trying to catch the conscience of his country.
[9] Mary Stuart and Lord Darnley were parents to James, King of Scotland, who would later become King of England. Historians suspect that the 4th Earl of Bothwell, Mary Stuart’s next husband, probably arranged the bombing that killed Darnley.
— James liked Shakespeare’s Hamlet and probably saw the parallels between his family and Hamlet’s.
— See The Character of Hamlet by John Erskine Hankins, sections of which I summarized in a previous blog post: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/07/politics-in-hamlet-via-john-erskine.html
— See also the following source (accessed 1/22/2023, section heading, “Who did kill Lord Darnley?”):
“While there is no definite answer to the question of who murdered Lord Darnley, most historians agree that Bothwell [Mary’s next husband] - with or without Mary's complicity - concocted the plot. https://britishheritage.com/history/mary-queen-scots-kill-lord-darnley
[10] See 3.2.268: HAMLET: “This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.”
— If Hamlet merely wanted to catch the conscience of his uncle, he would have said “brother to the king.”
— It seems Hamlet may have wanted to use the play-within-the-play as a threat, not merely a mousetrap for a king’s conscience, so he says, “nephew to the king.”
[11] Many have noted how Hamlet’s commentary and antics distract from his purpose. At 3.2.269, Ophelia notes Hamlet’s animated, running commentary on the play: “You are as good as a chorus, my lord.”
[12] See Luke 2:41-52, the gospel read for the occasion of the First Sunday after the Epiphany.
— On the one hand, this allusion by Hamlet is ironic: Hamlet hopes to get proof of his uncle’s guilt so that he can avenge his father’s death by killing his uncle, something Jesus (as imagined by the Protestantism and Catholicism of the time) would not do.
— On the other hand, as Peter Lake has noted (Hamlet’s Choice), and as I have often stressed in my blog, Hamlet has a character arc: He is tempted to revenge for personal reasons, changed for the worse at first, but changed somewhat for the better by the end, reconciling with Laertes, becoming more “Christian,” more forgiving, more merciful, while still just in dealing with Claudius, the killer of both of his parents.
— Lake claims (98-109) that in Hamlet, Shakespeare mixes genres, including conversion narrative, where people undergo conversion repenting from sin. See my post on Peter Lake’s book, Hamlet’s Choice:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/07/peter-lake-on-four-genres-represented.html
[13] See these links for more on Michael Mack and his essay regarding the play, Hamlet, as a trap for the consciences of the audience:
https://media.christendom.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Hamlets-Mousetrap.pdf
https://www.christendom.edu/2011/02/08/professor-michael-mack-speaks-on-hamlet/
https://www.christendom.edu/2011/02/01/author-and-professor-dr-michael-mack-to-deliver-lecture/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COLLAGE IMAGES, TOP, L-R:
Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere (cropped), 1536-38. Titian. Uffizi Gallery. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Retrato_de_Francesco_Maria_della_Rovere,_por_Tiziano.jpg
(Prophet) Nathan and (King) David (cropped), c. 1633, Jacob Backer. Private collection. Public domain, via https://www.pubhist.com/w7805
Portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga (cropped), c.1538, Titian. Uffizi Gallery. Public domain, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Titian_-_Eleonora_Gonzaga_-_WGA22983.jpg
St. Joseph making mousetraps (cropped/detail),c.1427-32, from altarpiece Annunciation Triptych, from the workshop of Robert Campin. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain, via https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/470304
COLLAGE IMAGES, BOTTOM, L-R:
Portrait of Battista Sforza, c. 1472–1473 (cropped), by Piero della Francesca. Left half of diptych that, on the right, includes her husband, Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Uffizi Gallery, Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battista_sforza.jpg
Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist (cropped), c.1515–25, by Bernardino Luini. Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Public domain, via https://collections.mfa.org/objects/31925
1566 Portrait of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell (cropped), c 1535 - 1578. Third husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Public domain, via National Galleries Scotland: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/1868
Portrait Catherine of Aragon (cropped), 1525, by Lucas Horenbout. Unknown location. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catherine_of_Aragon_(1485-1536).jpg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
To find the subscribe button, see the = drop-down menu with three lines in the upper left.
Comments
Post a Comment