Part 7: Ophelia's Gravedigger: They "sat on her"

We should resist the temptation to treat the gravediggers and their clowning in Hamlet 5.1 as mere comic relief: They prepare audiences and readers to view the “churlish priest” more critically.

GRAVEDIGGER  Is she to be buried in Christian burial,
when she willfully seeks her own salvation? [1]

(Shouldn’t all people seek their own salvation? “Willfully” suggests a parody of the Protestant idea that we are saved by “faith alone,” not by works. But by Gertrude's account, it is not at all clear that Ophelia committed suicide - it is a mystery - so why assume?)
 
OTHER  I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave
straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it
Christian burial.

GRAVEDIGGER  How can that be, unless she drowned
herself in her own defense? [2][3]

(The gravedigger mangles “The coroner’s inquest sat to consider her death,”
which becomes
“The crowner hath sat on her.”
Funny but disturbing, to sit on the corpse of a drowned woman.
The original spelling was “sate on her.” Another meaning: The “crowner’s quest” satisfied themselves on her. A necrophilia joke. They used her. They screwed her over.) [4]

Some note that these men (gravediggers, priest) omit madness as a valid defense in a case of suicide, and that while self-defense can be a valid legal defense in a case of murder, not with suspected suicide (If Ophelia’s drowning had not been accidental as Gertrude implies, but intentional, it might have been to defend herself from all of the corruption around her, etc.).[5].

But more importantly, none of these men attend to Gertrude’s account of Ophelia’s death. They are caught up in their own intellectual categories, none of which fit Ophelia in Gertrude’s version.[6]

And more than that, they were not eyewitnesses of Ophelia's drowning, and perhaps neither was Gertrude. So why judge her a suicide? The only basis for such a judgment would be their own assumptions, not evidence. Scriptures that people in Shakespeare's lifetime would have heard often in church include "Judge not that you be not judged, for how you measure others (with or without mercy) will determine how you yourself will be judged" (paraphrased). 

The gravedigger asks his friend a riddle:
“What is he that builds stronger than
either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?” [7]
The first answer is “The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.” [8]
The gravedigger likes the answer but scolds his friend for implying the gallows are greater than the church. [9]

But “the church” is not correct either: “a grave-maker” is the answer:
“The houses he makes
lasts till doomsday.” [10]

In other words, churches (Catholic, Protestant, Puritan) and religions come and go, but graves last until the final judgment, when (one might imagine) God may have more mercy for Ophelia than for the “churlish priest.” 

The clowns get the audience and reader to think more deeply about the mystery of Ophelia’s death. They also prepare us to be critical of the “churlish priest” when he comes upon the scene, claiming that to bury Ophelia on holy ground profanes the service of the dead.[11]

There are worse ways to profane religious ceremonies, such as crowning a murderous usurper as king.


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NOTES:

[1] 5.1.1-61.  All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

[2] 5.1.3-7

[3] There is a similar “crowner” joke in Twelfth Night 1.5.132-134, where Olivia says her cousin is drowned in drink. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/twelfth-night/read/1/5/

[4] As noted in previous blog posts, in David Bevington's book Murder Most Foul: Hamlet Through the Ages, Bevington includes the following parenthetical observation regarding suicides:

(Coroners in Shakespeare's day were instructed to issue of suicide in such dubious cases, partly because swimming was regarded as reckless self-endangerment and thus virtually a suicidal act, but more importantly because the estate of the deceased would then go to the crown.) (60)

See previous blog post on this topic:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2020/08/coroners-suicide-inquest-as-crowners.html

[5] Barbara Smith, “Neither Accident nor Intent: Contextualizing the Suicide of Ophelia”
South Atlantic Review, Vol. 73, No. 2 (Spring 2008), pp. 96-112. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27784781

[6] Too many critics resort to legalistic hair-splitting, trying to determine if what the gravediggers, coroner’s inquest, and priest say has any basis in church and civil law, essentially defending these positions, even the joking of the gravedigger, rather than considering whether Shakespeare may have perceived the laws and the church as broken and hypocritical.

[7] 5.1.42-43.

[8] 5.1.44-45.

[9] 5.1.46-50.

[10] 5.1.60-61.

[11] 5.1.233-247.
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IMAGES:
Public domain from
Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive
by Michael John Goodman

Left: Illustrator: Kenny Meadows
Engraver: John Orrin Smith
Source Text: The Works of Shakspere [...] Tragedies / Vol. II.
Published: London: William S. Orr and Co, 1846.
https://shakespeareillustration.org/2015/01/23/gravediggers/

Right, top: Illustrator: John Gilbert
Engraver: Dalziel Brothers
Source Text: The Works of Shakespeare / Ed Howard Staunton / [...] Vol. 3
Published: London: George Routledge and Sons, 1867
https://shakespeareillustration.org/2015/02/06/hamlet-act-v-header/

Right, bottom: Illustrator: H. C. Selous
Engraver: Frederick Wentworth
Source Text: The Plays of William Shakespeare  / Ed. Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke / [...] Parts XXVII-XXIX
Published: London, Paris and Melbourne: Cassell & Company, Limited [1864–68?]
https://shakespeareillustration.org/2016/08/08/gravediggers-2/


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INDEX OF OPHELIA POSTS:
My 2023 series on Ophelia, and earlier Ophelia posts:

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/index-of-ophelia-posts-2023-series-and.html
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YOU CAN SUPPORT ME on a one-time "tip" basis on Ko-Fi:
https://ko-fi.com/pauladrianfried

IF YOU WOULD PREFER to support me on a REGULAR basis,
you may do so on Ko-Fi, or here on Patreon:
https://patreon.com/PaulAdrianFried
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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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