Part 8: Ophelia to Claudius: "God yield you"

Ophelia to Claudius:
“God dild [yield] you.” [1] *

Some claim "God yield you" means "God reward you," which sounds a lot like "God bless you"....
But yield? To whom does the verb apply?
Is God the one yielding by being merciful and withholding anger and wrath, a common biblical theme?
Or is this grammatically inverted, saying "You (should/must) yield (to) God"?

In their ritual repetition of "The Lord's Prayer," over and over, Christians say, as if in a covenant or vow, "Forgive us our sins (or debts) as we forgive (our debtors)." This repeats another biblical idea: As we judge others, so shall we be judged. As we forgive (and yield, instead of taking revenge), so shall we be forgiven by a God who will yield in mercy instead of wrath.

So in fact it seems that "God yield you" involves the verb "yield" being applied both to "you" and to "God." The tradition repeatedly claims that this is *always* the dynamic. Even as we yield in faith to God and to others in love, obedience, and trust, so shall God yield in mercy to us.

In Shakespeare’s time, the idea of yielding (like grief) was “gendered,” but important for both men and women, and had rich biblical connotations:

Yielding to God in faith and repentance (salvation by “faith alone”);
yielding one’s ghost in death;
yielding to others in service, love, or obedience;
the earth yielding harvests;
God yielding in mercy.

In 5.2, Hamlet asks Osric to explain “carriages.”
As if Hamlet had sought explanation in scripture margin notes, Horatio says,
“I knew you must be edified by the margent
ere you had done.” [2]

Elizabethans read “the margent” to understand more fully, [3] so we should note that “yield” [yeelde/yelde] appears not only in scripture texts but also in margin notes.

A few examples from Geneva translation (1585 & 1599, EMPHASIS mine):

Genesis 25:8
Then Abraham YIELDED the spirit, and died in a good age, an old man, and of great years, and was gathered to his people.

Jeremiah 38:17
...If thou wilt go forth unto the king of Babel’s [k] princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burnt up with fire, and thou shalt live, and thine house.
[k]: And YIELD  thyself unto them.

Daniel 3:28
…Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who hath sent his Angel, and delivered his servants, that put their trust in him, and have changed the King's commandment, and YIELDED their bodies rather then they would serve or worship any god, save their own God.

Matthew 27:50
Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and YIELDED up the ghost.

Mark 4:8
Some [seed] again fell in good ground, and did YIELD fruit that sprung up, and grew, and it brought forth, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some an hundredfold.

1599 margin note [c] to Eph 6:1 on obedience to parents: “For the Lord is author of all fatherhood, and therefore we must YIELD such obedience as he will have us.”

In other passages, the idea of YIELDING is conveyed without the word “yield”: Repenting of sin, surrendering to God, softening a hardened heart, etc.

In Luke 1:38, Mary tells the angel Gabriel, “Behold the servant of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word” [YIELDING to the divine].

OPHELIA:
- When Laertes advises her to guard her chastity, she yields (agrees to hold his advice), and yields back: He should not be a hypocrite.[4]
- When Polonius commands her not to see Hamlet, she yields information about his "vows" but also yields in obedience.[5]
- She yields back Hamlet’s letters, but not without voicing (yielding) her feelings.[6]
- At The Mousetrap, she yields to Hamlet’s head in her lap, to his bawdy remarks; but when he is too chatty, she yields (comments) that he is like a chorus, and “still better and worse.”[6]
- She yields blessings, songs, flowers, prayers, and perhaps yields in faith to the water after the branch breaks (maybe someone will save her, maybe not; the readiness is all)...
- In the end, she is “peace-parted”...

In life and death, Ophelia yields much better than Claudius.
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Postscripts:
Virgil: “Omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus amori”. (Love conquers all; let us all yield to love).
"... there can be no reasonable doubt that Shakespeare read some Virgil in Latin at school, and that allusions and references to Virgil are found throughout his work." (From summary, chapter 5, Shakespeare and Virgil, from the book, Shakespeare and the Classics. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/shakespeare-and-the-classics/shakespeare-and-virgil/FA2A8E3BB9A8E726A4219018D17CF2D3
(with thanks to Peter Pazzaglini for his mentioning of the Virgil quote).
The idea of yielding may be even more problematic, in part because patriarchies restrict the agency of women too much; monarchies and plutocracies restrict the agency of the workers and the lower classes (the gravediggers in Hamlet express resentment that Ophelia, who they suspect of being a suicide, was only buried in the church graveyard and not as a suicide because she was of the aristocracy).

Protestantism said we are saved by "faith alone," which can be viewed as a kind of yielding to the will of God. But what of those, like Ophelia, who have had yielding imposed on them, demanded of them, too much? What of women, and refugees, and underpaid workers, all of whom lack agency, and are always expected to yield? Of these, it may seem that to yield is just another insult...


* ("God dild" as "God yield":
See C. T. Onions, "A Shakespeare Glossary”
at Tufts University. Link below in NOTES under [1])

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NOTES:

[1] 4.5.47. All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

For “God yield you,” see “C. T. Onions, A Shakespeare Glossary” at Tufts University:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.03.0068:entry=God%20%27ild,%20Godild

[2] 5.2.168-169

[3] Many scholars have noted that the margin notes also conveyed Calvinist-Protestant bias in the Geneva translation, and Catholic bias in the Catholic translations.


[4] 1.3.6-55

[5] 1.3.98-145

[6] 3.1.102-112, 126, 130, 163-175

[7] 3.2.269-275

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Top collage images:
1583 Geneva Bible facsimile images public domain via
https://bibles-online.net/1583/

Bottom: Detail, “Ophelia,” John Everett Millais, circa 1851. Elizabeth Siddal (sitter). Tate Britain. Public domain via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Ophelia_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Yield signs collage: Public Domain or property of US government
https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/29/2002056833/1088/820/0/181015-M-PQ554-0001.JPG

https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/290000/velka/yield-sign-15494501051R5.jpg

http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/9Tp/e5A/9Tpe5Aerc.png

https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/stock-photos.php?page=0&hleda=yield+sign

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Yield_Sign_DC.jpg

https://cdn2.picryl.com/photo/2019/01/16/applying-the-rules-of-the-roundabout-to-fort-knoxs-stithton-circle-d08488-1024.jpg

https://www.canstockphoto.com/images-photos/yield-sign.html

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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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IF YOU LIKE and are able,
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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Thanks for reading!
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