(Part 7) Hamlet’s allusion in 3.2 to the boy Jesus: Hamlet as Abbott, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as Costellos?

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INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html
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Hamlet’s allusion to himself and his mother as like the boy Jesus and his mother Mary is delivered, couched inside of a kind of comedy routine, not unlike Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” [1]

This is great fun but makes it easier to miss the allusion.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are being serious with Hamlet, trying to convey messages about the king’s “distemper” and the queen’s “affliction of spirit,” but Hamlet keeps joking.

Even Hamlet’s final allusion line, “O wonderful son that can so ’stonish a mother!” is delivered as a joke. Note this section of the scene:

~~~~~
GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word
with you.

HAMLET Sir, a whole history.

GUILDENSTERN The King, sir—

HAMLET Ay, sir, what of him?

GUILDENSTERN Is in his retirement marvelous
distempered.

HAMLET With drink, sir?

GUILDENSTERN No, my lord, with choler. *

HAMLET Your wisdom should show itself more richer
to signify this to the doctor, for for me to put him to
his purgation would perhaps plunge him into more
choler. *

GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, put your discourse into
some frame and start not so wildly from my
affair.

HAMLET I am tame, sir. Pronounce.

GUILDENSTERN The Queen your mother, in most great
affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

HAMLET You are welcome.

GUILDENSTERN Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not
of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me
a wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s
commandment. If not, your pardon and my return
shall be the end of my business.

HAMLET Sir, I cannot.

ROSENCRANTZ What, my lord?

HAMLET Make you a wholesome answer. My wit’s
diseased. But, sir, such answer as I can make, you
shall command—or, rather, as you say, my mother.
Therefore no more but to the matter. My mother,
you say—

ROSENCRANTZ Then thus she says: your behavior hath
struck her into amazement and admiration.

HAMLET O wonderful son that can so ’stonish a mother!
But is there no sequel at the heels of this
mother’s admiration? Impart.

ROSENCRANTZ She desires to speak with you in her
closet ere you go to bed.

HAMLET We shall obey, were she ten times our mother.
Have you any further trade with us?

(Hamlet 3.2.335-362) [2]
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The stepfather Claudius and mother Gertrude are out of sorts, like Joseph and Mary in their concern about the lost son, Jesus.
In both the play and in the Luke 2:46-52 gospel tale, forms of the words “amaze” and “astonish” are used.

But the above context of the comedy routine makes it harder to spot the allusion. This may explain in part why so many miss the allusion. Blink, and you'll miss it. (More on that in Part 8 next week.)

NOTES:
[1] Bud Abbot and Lou Costello frequently performed their “Who’s on First” routine in a variety of contexts. It is considered one of the most famous comedy routines, and has often been imitated. Here is one 1945 version, via Youtube:
https://youtu.be/sYOUFGfK4bU

NOTES * (on "choler" and "purgation"):
"Shakespeare also uses the references to humours for comedic effect. For example, after the play within the play, Guildenstern tells Hamlet that the King “Is in his retirement marvelous 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝.” Hamlet asks, “With drink?” (clearly playing dumb in order to make a pointed insult about Claudius, whom he considers a drunk), and Guildenstern replies, “No, my lord, with 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐫.” Hamlet then suggests Guildenstern should be giving this information to the king’s doctor, “for for me to put him to his 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 would no doubt plunge him into more choler” (III.ii.327-34). The phrase “put him to his purgation” would, in this case, refer to catheterizing him (in Elizabethan times, this would involve inserting a thin metal rod up the urethra in order to relieve pressure in the bladder) which Hamlet says would certainly make him angrier. No doubt!" http://mason.gmu.edu/~rnanian/humours.html
George Mason University

"Being a patient in Shakespeare’s time was an adventure. You might be told to drink liquid gold or syrup of violets. You might undergo a violent 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 to take the bad humors out of your body. They might draw blood from your ankle or your arm...." https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/elizabethan-medicine/ - Folger Shakespeare Library

[2] All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

IMAGE:
Screen capture from cover, Budd Abbott and Lou Costello in "The Naughty Nineties," 1945. https://www.fye.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-fye-master/default/dw891be072/aec/mhv/mhv611/aec.mhv61196815dvd_0.jpg. Cropped. Fair use.

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(Part 7) Hamlet’s allusion in 3.2 to the boy Jesus: Hamlet as Abbott, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as Costellos?

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