Poisoned Cup as profound violation of hospitality

As it appears in Hamlet, the poisoned cup is not the same as some examples mentioned in my last post: Although these can shed light, Claudius and Laertes use deception, concealing their poisons. This is an important key.

This is not the case with Socrates, nor with Sophonisba (suicides).

Deception is an element involved in the gift of the Trojan Horse and the attempted poisoning of Merlin, St. John, and Theseus. For John Knox, Catholic Eucharist was also (in his mind) a kind of deception as well as a poison [1].

For John Knox, Catholic Eucharist was also (in his mind) a kind of deception as well as a poison [1].

The poisoned cup of Claudius can be viewed as a profound violation of the hospitality it appears to embody. As such, the deception of a seeming gift or gesture of hospitality is itself poisonous.

This is important in light of the recurring theme of hospitality that runs through Hamlet:

- Sometimes hospitality is neglected, as in the Lazarus-Rich Man allusion (by the Ghost) [2],
or potential neglect of hospitality toward the players by Polonius, scolded by Hamlet [3].
- Sometimes it is repeatedly manipulated or reduced in favor of selfish concern, as in Ophelia's allusion to the tale of the baker's daughter [4] who is changed into an owl for being ungenerous with a beggar (Jesus in disguise) [5], and perhaps similarly Ophelia's rejection of Hamlet's love letters [6] and acting as bait for spying on him.
- Sometimes hospitality is both offered and received:
This is true in Horatio presenting himself to Hamlet as his lord's servant, and Hamlet wishing to "change that name" and call Horatio "my good friend" instead of "servant" [7];
and in the gospel tale of the appearance of Jesus as a stranger to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, echoed in the graveyard scene with the clown and Yorick's skull.[8]

The play offers that insincere and deceptive hospitality (the poison cup) is even worse than neglect or indifference (the rich man), or any garden variety of selfishness that might make one reduce one's generosity toward a beggar (the baker's daughter).


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

[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestantism/The-role-of-John-Knox

[2] 1.5.78-80 - GHOST: “And a most instant tetter barked about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
All my smooth body.”

[3] 2.2.553-559:
POLONIUS  My lord, I will use them according to their
desert.
HAMLET  God’s bodykins, man, much better! Use every
man after his desert and who shall ’scape
whipping? Use them after your own honor and
dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in
your bounty. Take them in.

[4] 4.5.47-49

[5] In the legend, Jesus, disguised as a beggar, appears at the door of a baker who puts some dough in the oven to feed him. The baker’s daughter says it’s too much, so the baker makes it smaller, but it rises and becomes bigger, again and again. In some versions, the daughter exclaims surprise at the expanding size of the loaf and says, “heugh, heugh!” which sounds like an owl. But in a different kind of logic, she might have asked: Who is this stranger at the door? “Who’s there?” like the first question of the play. She fails to allow for the possibility that what she does unto the beggar (“the least of these”) she does unto Jesus, as the gospel passage says (Matthew 25:40).

[6] 3.1.102-112

[7] 1.2.168-169

[8] As explained in my earlier blog series: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/08/index-emmaus-in-hamlets-graveyard-and.html


IMAGES:
Upper left:
Trojan Horse: Illumination attributed to Trautz-Bauzonnet, binder. Text printed mid-15th century, illuminations late 17th. Image available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Destruction_de_Troye_la_Grant,_translat%C3%A9e_de_latin_en_fran%C3%A7ois_et_mise_par_personnages._Cy_sensuit_lystoire_de_la_des,_LDUT397(1).jpg

Center:
Patrick Stewart as Claudius, drinking from the cup he poisoned, realizing he has been exposed as a murderer and poisoner. From the 2008 RSC production of of 'Hamlet' via BBC. Dir. Gregory Doran. (Fair use.) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p011n3qv

Upper right:
St John the Evangelist Drinking from the Poisoned Cup, between 1348 and 1353, by Taddeo Gaddi  (1300–1366). Vittorio Cini collection (Palazzo Cini Gallery). Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Taddeo_Gaddi_-_St_John_the_Evangelist_Drinking_from_the_Poisoned_Cup_-_WGA08392.jpg

Lower right:
Medea offers poison cup to her stepson, Theseus, as King Aegeus looks on. Published 1912. Illustration by William Russell Flint for book, “The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for my Children,” by KINGSLEY, CHARLES. Public domain (100 years or fewer), via Swann Auction Galleries:
https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//764/718764.jpg

Lower left:
“Merlinus: (Merlin). Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493, public domain via
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin#/media/File:Nuremberg_chronicles_f_138r_5.jpg



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