Epiphany and Balthazar in Shakespeare (Series, part 13)

From a 2023 post [1]:
...Balthazar (the dark-skinned magi of the evolving Epiphany tradition) became a kind of touchstone or symbol of otherness, diversity, and tolerance.

And so it is also perhaps no surprise that the name Balthasar occurs five times in Shakespeare’s plays,
twice as servants (in Romeo and Juliet, and in The Merchant of Venice),
once as a singer in Much Ado About Nothing,
once as a merchant in The Comedy of Errors,
and once as a lawyer, Portia’s courtroom disguise in The Merchant of Venice, where she is called a "Daniel"; a play in which Portia considers suitors from many lands.

Shakespeare also has a play named after the night before the Epiphany, Twelfth Night. The three Magi are outsiders, foreigners, and so are the siblings in Twelfth Night who are shipwrecked on the island of Illyria, the land of their enemies. But by the end of that play, the siblings both marry leading personages from Illyria, contributing to themes of diversity, tolerance, reconciliation, and loving one’s enemies.

In Hamlet, Horatio describes one encounter with the ghost as “wondrous strange,” and Hamlet responds, “And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” (1.5.186)

Especially in recent years, many have noted the theme of tolerance and diversity in a refugee speech (“The Stranger’s Case”) written with Shakespeare in a collaboration for the play, Sir Thomas More.

So if Shakespeare seems to have had a fondness for the name of Balthazar in an age when one of the Magi/Wise Men was thought to have been a black African, it may have been more than a poet loving the sound of the name. It may have been like a code word used among playwrights, poets, patrons, and members of the public who were willing to tolerate difference and embrace diversity, things still in need today.

[To be cont.]

INDEX for posts in this series on the TWELVE DAYS of CHRISTMAS in Shakespeare’s time (and possible influences on the plays):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/twelve-days-of-christmas-in-churches-of.html

NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu

[1] See post from January 04, 2023, “Balthasar and Epiphany in Shakespeare and Renaissance Paintings”:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/balthasar-and-epiphany-in-shakespeare.html

IMAGES, Adoration of the Magi, Balthazar detail/crop:
Albrecht Dürer:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Adoration_of_the_Magi_by_D%C3%BCrer#/media/File:Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_Adorazione_dei_Magi_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Hieronymus Bosch:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hieronymus_Bosch_-_Triptych_of_the_Adoration_of_the_Magi_-_WGA2606.jpg

Jan Gossaert:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Jan_Gossaert_001.jpg

Pieter Bruegel the Elder:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Adoration_of_the_Kings_-_WGA3461.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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