John Drakakis on quasi-religious veneration of Shakespeare
and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
KING What dost thou mean by this?
HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king
may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
(4.3.30-35)
(Some say this sounds like a threat, from Hamlet to Claudius; but it's also more simply a reminder to Claudius of his mortality....)
In Shakespeare’s time, Protestants and Catholics still debated Eucharist.
- Catholics are taught that in the prayers of the Mass, the Eucharistic bread becomes the “body of Christ,” but that this is not cannibalism.
- Lutherans are taught that the bread becomes Christ but also remains bread, a position too Catholic for Calvin.
- Calvinists believe those who eat of the Eucharistic received Christ spiritually, not physically.
- Protestant polemics made fun of this, observing that if a church mouse ate crumbs of Catholic Eucharist, it would be ridiculous to claim that Christ, King of heaven, “may go a progress through the guts” of a church mouse, or a beggar.
Some obviously worked hard to save God from the indignity of a passage through the intestines of mice or beggars. If one thereby saves God from the dung heap, one might think oneself quite heroic, a savior of God!
(Did they consult the mice on this question? 😉 )
It helps to understand the basics about “transubstantiation” to appreciate the following 2002 quote from John Drakakis.
It is also helpful to note that the term, “bardolotry,” was first used in 1901 by George Bernard Shaw regarding those who seem to worship Shakespeare and his works.
Drakakis:
"In pointing out the discrepancy between the phenomenological existence of Shakespeare's texts and the ways in which they have subsequently been used, the veneration of the dramatist himself can be shown to be not an act of simple idolatry so much as a process of transubstantiation.* The view that would substitute the Shakespeare canon for a fully operative theology constitutes, as Harbage mischievously proposes, a search for faith."
- John Drakakis,
Introduction, Alternative Shakespeares, second edition, 2002.
* Changing something ordinary into something transcendent, an encounter with the divine.
NOTES: All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/
IMAGES:
Right: John Drakakis, via British Shakespeare Association, fair use, https://www.britishshakespeare.ws/2019-honorary-fellowship-awarded/
Left: Book cover, Alternative Shakespeares, fair use, via https://www.routledge.com/Alternative-Shakespeares/Drakakis/p/book/9780415287234
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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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