Part 54: Ophelia, like Jesus, preaching against hypocritical libertines (deconstructed?)

Ophelia’s first biblical allusion made her sound, to Elizabethan ears, like Jesus condemning hypocrisy and corruption of authorities. She targets her brother as a potential hypocrite and “libertine.”

Laertes warns her not to get too close to Hamlet, that he is above her station, warning her not to lose her chastity to him. Ophelia responds kindly but strongly:

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede.[1]

In Matt. 7:13-14, Jesus’ cautions:
Avoid the “wide gate” (of too much freedom). “Straight and narrow” for Ophelia becomes “steep and thorny.”
In Matt. 23:1-4 Jesus says, do all that “teachers of the law” and Pharisees teach, as they sit in the “seat of Moses” as authorities, but not to do as they do, for they are hypocrites.[2]   

Like a corrupt Denmark and England?

Ophelia draws a contrast between herself, having been advised strict chastity, and her brother, who may be a “puffed and reckless libertine.”

Consider “libertine” in historical context:
The term was not a simple condemnation of sexual excess, but rooted in both “some radical fringes of Calvinism” that sought freedom of biblical interpretation (like Christians released by the Spirit from slavery to the “old law”), and also “supporters of the Florentine republic of 1527”: So “libertine” had political meanings as well as sexual ones.[3]  

Medici leaders opposed and reconquered Florence in 1512 and 1531; it was a Medici pope, Clement VII, who refused Henry VIII his requested annulment.[4]

Deconstructing apparent contradictions implied, Derrida might observe [5]: By criticizing potential “libertines,” this puts Ophelia in the interesting position of implying criticism of republics like that in Florence, and supporting the central authority, papacy and monarchy that condemned the marriage of her father, Henry VIII, to her mother, Anne Boleyn.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-54-ophelia-like-jesus-preaching.html

NOTES: All references to Hamlet (and other Shakespeare plays) are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: For Hamlet, see https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

[1] 1.3.49-55. “...recks not his own rede”; heeds not (reckons not) his own counsel, his own advice.

[2] Naseeb Shaheen, Biblical References in Shakespeare’s Plays, 1999, U of Delaware Press, 541-542.
Matthew 7:13-14 (Geneva translation):
13 Enter in at the strait gate: for it is the wide gate, and broad way that leadeth to destruction: and many there be which go in thereat.
14 Because the gate is strait, and the way narrow that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 23:1-4 (Geneva translation):
1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
2 Saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do: but after their works do not: for they say, and do not.
4 For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

[3] With thanks to Federico La Sala who noted this, citing  Giovanni Scarpato, who cites Carlo Ginzburg. From Scarpato:  
“The French philosophers whom we today inscribe in this [“libertine”] category, such as Montaigne, Charron, Naudè, Le Vayer, did not define themselves in this way. In fact, they would look at it well. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in fact, as Carlo Ginzburg showed, the term had been used to define some radical fringes of Calvinism that intended to arrogate the freedom to freely interpret the Bible. Some of them also believed that one could live according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures without renouncing a sexually free life. But there was also a further meaning of the term, spread in Italy as early as the 16th century, when in this way the supporters of the Florentine republic of 1527 were called. Libertino was therefore the one who defended the value of freedom in a republican sense.” (via Google Translate)

Federico La Sala’s source, Giovanni Scarpato (posted 15 July 2024) cites Carlo Ginzburg in the above passage, found here:
https://www.lidentitadiclio.com/litalia-libertina-un-problema-storico-ancora-aperto-prima-parte/

[4] Henry VIII was like the “puffed and reckless libertine” with his sexual affairs, hypocritical after defending the Catholic Church against Luther.

[5] Jacques Derrida, credited as the originator of the concept of “deconstruction”:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/derrida/


IMAGE:
Ophelia and Laertes, circa 1880. William Gorman Wills.
Private collection. Public domain, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Gorman_Wills-Ophelia_and_Laertes.jpg

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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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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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