First Day of Christmas in English churches of Shakespeare's Time (series, Part 1)
People in England were required by law to attend church on Sundays and Holy Days, so hearing at least some of the Bible readings in church [1] would have been mandatory.
On Christmas Day, if one rose early and made it to church for Matins (early morning prayer), one would hear the tale from the Gospel of Luke of the shepherds hearing the angels announcing the birth of Jesus, and going to adore him [2].
But if one attended only the later liturgy with communion service, one would hear from the Gospel of John about the Word of God being made flesh (the incarnation, the God of heaven made “incarnate” as a human being on earth), and about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus [3]. John the Baptist was already familiar from the gospels for the last two Sundays of Advent, a theme repeated on the first few days of Christmas at morning prayer.
How do these come up in Shakespeare?
- The infant princess, Perdita, daughter of King Leontes and Queen Hermoine, is unrecognized as such when adopted by shepherds in A Winter’s Tale (4.1.). She is royal but incognito, like infant Jesus, prince of heaven, incognito as a carpenter’s son. (Disguises are frequent in Shakespeare, and some may echo aspects of the incarnation [4]).
- Duke Vincentio says, “Look, th’ unfolding star calls up the Shepherd” late in Measure for Measure [5], a play about an unwed pregnant woman (the Virgin Mary was also pregnant before marriage) - so if Mary and Joseph had lived in the Vienna of that play, they might have been given the death penalty for pregnancy outside of marriage.
- Other Shakespeare plays involve shepherds [6]; the Christmas gospel was part of the cultural-religious fabric that informed that motif.
- John the Baptist was beheaded for condemning the biblically incestuous marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother’s wife; audiences would have noticed that Hamlet names the player queen “Baptista” in “The Mousetrap” [7], his play to catch the consciences of Claudius and Gertrude.
[TO BE CONTINUED]
POSTSCRIPT:
There were of course for Shakespeare other tales and experiences of shepherds, including folktales and tales from classical sources, but English folktales may already have borne the mark of Christian biblical influences, and regarding classical tales, no one was required by law in Shakespeare's lifetime to hear Greek or Roman tales in church, yet they were required to attend services where these readings would be heard.
- One might say that Christianity in England was a kind of tyranny in that way, demanding their compliance, and threatening harsh consequences for noncompliance. Jesus was quotes as saying, "The truth will set you free," but people in England were not free to choose not to attend church.
- Some Shakespeare scholars act as if the plot material for the plays came from many, many different sources, but none of them biblical! Perhaps critics and scholars were, like some others, worn down by the hypocrisies of institutional Christianity, and simply did not want to consider Shakespeare as using, even transforming, biblical source material?
- But some Shakespeare scholars do recognize and reflect on such biblical material in the plays. One need not believe in literal virgin births, or resurrections, to consider it.
INDEX for posts in this series on the TWELVE DAYS of CHRISTMAS
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/twelve-days-of-christmas-in-churches-of.html
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] I use the 1559 Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer (BCP), ed. John E. Booty, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1976. Page numbers given below.
[2] Luke 2 (see BCP p. 29; also, on page 47 for December, the line for Christmas, morning prayer, second lesson, “Luke 22” may be a misprint that was supposed to have been Luke 2).
[3] John I (see BCP p. 84).
[4] Disguised characters who embody aspects of the incarnation may include Viola in Twelfth Night, Portia in the courtroom scene of The Merchant of Venice, or Henry V moving disguised among his troops before Agincourt.
[5] 4.2.220-221. Besides "star" and "shepherd," the play also has an angel of sorts, "Angelo," but he seems a harsh and hypocritical Puritan angel.
[6] A few Shakespeare plays that include shepherds or the word “shepherd”:
As You Like It;
Coriolanus;
Cymbeline;
Hamlet;
Henry VI, Part I (Joan of Arc is daughter of a shepherd);
Henry VI, Part II;
Henry VIII;
King Lear;
Love's Labour's Lost;
Measure for Measure;
Merchant of Venice (Shylock alluding to the biblical Jacob as shepherd);
Midsummer Night's Dream;
Timon of Athens;
Two Gentlemen of Verona;
A Winter’s Tale.
[7] 3.2.263.
IMAGES:
Left: Master of the Houghton Miniatures (fl. from 1476 until 1480)
Annunciation to the Shepherds, from the Emerson-White Hours
circa 1485-1490
Getty Center
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Annunciation_to_the_Shepherds_-_Emerson-White_Hours_-_Getty_Museum_Ms60.jpg
Middle: El Greco (1541–1614) Toledo, Spain.
The Adoration of the Shepherds.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/El_Greco_%28Domenikos_Theotokopoulos%29_-_The_Adoration_of_the_Shepherds_%28ca._1605%E2%80%9310%29_-_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art.jpg
Right: Alvise Vivarini
Saint John the Baptist, 1475
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Alvise_Vivarini_San_Juan_Bautista_1475._Temple_y_%C3%B3leo_sobre_tabla._48%2C5_x_33%2C5_cm._Museo_Thyssen-Bornemisza.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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