Me at Eight: St. Martin of Tours and Hamlet

Raised Catholic but no longer observant, I still recall 3rd grade - 8-years old? -  preparation for confirmation, and having to choose a confirmation name.

I'd been given a book (Sixty Saints for Boys, 1948) - a tale about Martin of Tours appealed to me. It claimed Martin was a Roman soldier with a large, warm, not unattractive cloak. It was cold. He cut his cloak to give half to a beggar he encountered on his way. Fellow soldiers made fun of him. But in a dream, the beggar revealed himself as Jesus.

What a strange choice, for an 8-year old to choose this name!

Was I choosing that I should commit to being generous, even if peers made fun of me?

(Today, November 11, is the Feast Day of St. Martin of Tours.*)

Many years later, I now research and write about Shakespeare's 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘭𝘦𝘵, a play in which the ghost says the poison that killed him made his skin "Lazar-like," a reference to the gospel tale of the rich man who neglects the beggar Lazarus; after they die, the rich man is punished in fire that would disfigure skin, making his like the sore-covered skin of the beggar. Ophelia says "the owl was a baker's daughter," referencing a folktale version of the beggar Lazarus tale. [1]

The gospel story is in part a cautionary tale about failed hospitality toward strangers and beggars.

Later in the play, in the graveyard scene,
two Danes on the road past the graveyard to Elsinore
echo of the gospel tale of
two disciples on the road to Emmaus, who welcome a stranger later revealed to be Jesus.

This is a tale of successful hospitality:
the stranger or beggar is welcomed, not rejected.

Was I already determining, at the age of eight, some key allusions and plot echoes I might be inclined to notice in the play? Maybe…


[* With thanks to Domenico Condorelli.]

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] See previous Lazarus posts and series about the rich man and Lazarus in Hamlet:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/index-series-on-rich-man-and-beggar.html

[2] See previous Emmaus posts and series about Emmaus and the graveyard scene in Hamlet:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/05/emmaus-in-hamlet-in-emmaus-story-1.html

IMAGES:
LEFT: Detail of St. Martin from left third of image,
Colmar - Unterlinden Museum - Saint Martin, Saint Euchaire, Saint Sebastian - Anonymous, 1512 - Oil on wood.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Via
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Colmar_-_Unterlinden_Museum_-_Saint_Martin%2C_Saint_Euchaire%2C_Saint_Sebastian_-_Anonymous%2C_1512_-_Oil_on_wood.jpg

CENTER:  Saint Martin on Horseback Dividing His Cloak. Austrian. Stained Glass.
ca. 1410. Public domain via https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/cl/original/cdi30-113-4.jpg

RIGHT: El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
Saint Martin and the Beggar, 1597/1599
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Public Domain, via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/El_Greco_-_San_Mart%C3%ADn_y_el_mendigo.jpg


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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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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

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