(Part 10) Boy Amazes Mother in Shakespeare's Macbeth

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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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When considering an allusion by an author, it’s often informative to check and see if that author has other works that make a similar allusion.

With Hamlet’s allusion to the boy Jesus amazing his mother and the temple elders in 3.2, besides checking things such as homilies of the time (as I did in Part 9 of this series) [1], we might wonder:
Did Shakespeare allude to this Bible tale in other plays?

Naseeb Shaheen believes Shakespeare’s Cymbeline has a brief reference to this same gospel tale (1.1.47-52), and King Lear (more explicitly) in 4.4.26-32.

Less explicitly - yet perhaps quite significantly - in Macbeth, the dynamics between Lady Macduff and her son have a strong thematic connection to the tale of the boy Jesus amazing and [a-]stonishing his parents (and especially his mother, as Hamlet says). So Hamlet 3.2 and Macbeth 4.2 both contain not only allusion or strong thematic connection to the gospel tale, but also share concern with catching a mother’s conscience regarding her marriage:

LADY MACDUFF  Sirrah, your father’s dead.
And what will you do now? How will you live?

SON
As birds do, mother. [2]

LADY MACDUFF  What, with worms and flies?

SON
With what I get, I mean; and so do they.

LADY MACDUFF
Poor bird, thou ’dst never fear the net nor lime,
The pitfall nor the gin.

SON
Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set
for.
My father is not dead, for all your saying.

LADY MACDUFF
Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father?

SON  Nay, how will you do for a husband?

LADY MACDUFF
Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.

SON  Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again.

LADY MACDUFF  Thou speak’st with all thy wit,
And yet, i’ faith, with wit enough for thee.

SON  Was my father a traitor, mother?

LADY MACDUFF  Ay, that he was.

SON  What is a traitor?

LADY MACDUFF  Why, one that swears and lies.

SON  And be all traitors that do so?

LADY MACDUFF  Every one that does so is a traitor
and must be hanged.

SON  And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?

LADY MACDUFF  Every one.

SON  Who must hang them?

LADY MACDUFF  Why, the honest men.

SON  Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there
are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest
men and hang up them.

LADY MACDUFF  Now God help thee, poor monkey! But
how wilt thou do for a father?

SON  If he were dead, you’d weep for him. If you would
not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a
new father.

LADY MACDUFF  Poor prattler, how thou talk’st!
(Macbeth, 4.2.35-70) [2]

[Enter a Messenger who warns of impending danger, and then murderers who kill mother and son…]

The son is like a court fool (a young Yorick) who humorously catches the conscience of his mother, and the scene is an oasis of grace, allowing her an opportunity to see things in a new light.

This is one of the most heartwarming scenes in Macbeth, and it obviously meant something to the author; so this supports the idea of a similar allusion in Hamlet 3.2, with somewhat different implications when Hamlet tries to catch his mother’s conscience and later alludes (ironically?) to the tale from Luke 2 about the boy Jesus amazing and [a-]stonishing his mother.


(NEXT WEEK: THE SAME BIBLICAL ECHO IN KING LEAR)


NOTES:
[1] Posts in this series:

(Part 1) Hamlet as the Boy Jesus among Temple Elders
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/hamlet-as-boy-jesus-among-synagogue.html

(Part 2) Hamlet as boy Jesus among Temple Elders: Historical-Artistic Background
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/02/hamlet-as-boy-jesus-among-temple-elders.html

(Part 3) Hamlet as the boy Jesus among Temple Elders: A closer look
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/02/hamlet-as-boy-jesus-among-temple-elders_14.html

(Part 4 ) Dissonance and Irony in Hamlet's 3.2 Allusion to Luke 2
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/02/part-4-dissonance-and-irony-in-hamlets.html

(Part 5) The targets of Hamlet's 3.2 ironic allusion to Luke 2:46-52
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/02/part-5-targets-of-hamlets-32-ironic.html

(Part 6) Hamlet in 3.2 as the boy Jesus among temple elders: Plucking mysteries' hearts?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/03/part-6-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus.html

(Part 7) Hamlet’s allusion in 3.2 to the boy Jesus: Hamlet as Abbott, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as Costellos?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/03/part-7-hamlets-allusion-in-32-to-boy.html

(Part 8) Hamlet in 3.2 as the boy Jesus: Why has this been missed?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/03/part-8-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-why.html

(Part 9) Twisting the tale of the boy Jesus in the temple: Bishop Jewell, official book of homilies
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/04/part-9-twisting-tale-of-boy-jesus-in.html

(Part 10) A Boy Amazing Elders (and audience) in Shakespeare's Macbeth
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/04/part-10-boy-amazes-mother-in.html

(Part 11) Cordelia in 4.4 is about her father's business in Shakespeare's King Lear
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/04/part-11-cordelia-in-44-is-about-her.html

(Part 12) TRY THIS: One Method for Considering Biblical Allusions
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/05/part-12-try-this-one-method-for.html

INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html

[2] “As birds do, mother.” The boy may have two gospel passages in mind, about lilies and sparrows:

Matthew 10:29-31 (1599 Geneva Bible):
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father?
30 Yea, and all the hairs of your head are numbered.
31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Luke 12:27-40 (1599 Geneva Bible):
27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they labor not, neither spin they: yet I say unto you, that Solomon himself in all his royalty was not clothed like one of these.
28 If then God so clothe the grass which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
29 Therefore ask not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither [a]hang you in suspense.
30 For all such things the people of the world seek for: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.


[3] I am citing here from the Folger online edition of Macbeth: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/read/4/2/


IMAGES:
Left: Allison Wolz as Lady Macduff; Elise Edwards as Young Macduff.Via Shakespeare Navigators-dot-com, via Southeast Missouri State University. Fair use.

Middle: Murderers, Lady Macduff and Her Son.
Illustration Number: 18/23
Source Text: The Works of Shakespeare / Edited by Howard Staunton / The Illustrations by John Gilbert / Engraved by the Dalziel Brothers / Vol. 3
Published: London: George Routledge and Sons, 1867.
Public domain, via https://shakespeareillustration.org/2015/02/08/murderers-lady-macduff-and-her-son/

Right: Lady Macduff and son, image via Lillian Prentiss, Costume Designer. Cropped, fair use, via https://lillianprentice.wordpress.com/patternsconstruction/100_2549/

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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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