The 9th Day of Christmas in Shakespeare's Time, January 2 (Series, Part 9)
“David …exhorteth kings and rulers, that they would humbly submit themselves under God’s yoke, because it is in vain to resist God. Herein is figured Christ’s kingdom.”
- Many of Shakespeare’s plays involve monarchs and rulers who resist, if not God, at least circumstances, ill fortune, and sometimes their own foolishness.
Today begins a cycle with Genesis 1, God shaping creation.
- Christian doctrine taught that God made creation out of nothing:
This may remind us of King Lear, telling Cordelia in 1.1. that the “nothing” of her refusal to play his game is unacceptable, because “"Nothing will come of nothing.” It may also remind us of “Much Ado About Nothing” [2].
Matthew 1 tells of the genealogy of Jesus, Mary’s pregnancy by the Holy Spirit, and Joseph’s dream in which he is told to marry her in spite of concerns. Supernatural dreams occur in Shakespeare as well, as with the dream of Bottom the Weaver, whose head has been changed into that of an ass [3].
At evening prayer, Genesis 2 tells of rest on the seventh day of creation, and another account of the creation of man and woman.
- Variations of the word “creation” occur 20 times in Shakespeare’s plays;
“Adam” 30 times;
“Eve” once in Richard II, once in Two Gentlemen of Verona, and once in Twelfth Night.
Romans 1 is remarkable, for Paul to have gone to Rome, the heart of the empire that occupied the Holy Land. Paul has greetings for the living “saints” of Rome, preaches against Roman sins, and notes in v.14:
“I am debtor both to the Grecians, and to the Barbarians, both to the wise men and to the unwise.”
Perhaps not unlike Shakespeare with his many "borrowed feathers" [4] and literary debts, for whom the letters of Paul were frequent sources for allusions [5].
[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] Except for feast days (like yesterday’s Circumcision of Jesus, and Epiphany), the morning and evening prayer readings for the months cycle through important Bible readings, one chapter at a time numerically.
[2] In Elizabethan slang, a man had a “thing” between his legs, and a woman had a “nothing,” hence the joke in the title that people of Shakespeare’s time would have quickly noticed, while many today miss it.
[3] A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 4.1.214-229. This is in part an allusion to “The Metamorphoses of Apuleius,” or as St. Augustine called it, “The Golden Ass,” Late 2nd century AD, published in English in 1566.
[4] It is hard since last year to use the phrase, "borrowed feathers" about Shakespeare borrowing from scripture without thinking of the good scholarship of Dr. Darren Freebury-Jones and his recent (and accessible) book, Shakespeare's borrowed feathers: How early modern playwrights shaped the world's greatest writer. If not already, this may soon be considered one of the most important books about Shakespeare in the present decade, perhaps the present half-century. I usually blog about how Shakespeare borrowed from scripture, either due to love of it, or compulsory church attendance, or perhaps some combination thereof; but Dr. Freebury-Jones has explored how Shakespeare was influenced by other writers, especially those of his own time. You can find very nice review at Goodreads at this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208475718-shakespeare-s-borrowed-feathers
[5] In the previously cited passage (fn.3), at its heart in 4.1.220-224, and in one of Shakespeare's most famous borrowings from St. Paul, Bottom humorously mixes up his quote from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, as
“The eye of
man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen,
man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to
conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream
was.”
The original for 1 Corinthians 2.9 in the Bishops’ Bible (read in church in Shakespeare’s time, and closer here to Shakespeare’s wording than the Geneva translation) read,
“That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.”
IMAGES:
Left: John Gilbert (1817–1897).
Cordelia in the Court of King Lear (1873).
Townley Hall Museum, Burnley
Public Domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Cordelia-in-the-Court-of-King-Lear-1873-Sir-John-Gilbert.jpg
Center: Paul Gervais (1859–1944).
The madness of Titania (1897)
Français : La Folie de Titania
Italiano: La follia di Titania
Musée des Augustins
Public domain via
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg
Right: Michelangelo (1475–1564)
Creation of Eve
Sistine Chapel (ceiling), fresco, between 1509 and 1510.
Cappella Sistina, Apostolic Palace,
Vatican City, Rome, Italy
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Michelangelo%2C_Creation_of_Eve_03.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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