Painting of John the Baptist in Shakespeare's schoolroom

On Instagram, ShakespearesSchoolroom notes, "during the restoration of Shakespeare’s Schoolroom & Guildhall in 2016 a rare medieval wall painting was uncovered. Identified by experts as John the Baptiste..." [1].

Interesting to think of a young Shakespeare perhaps seeing that and other paintings of the prophet, and later naming the player queen in Hamlet as "Baptista," after the prophet who condemned the marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother's divorced wife.

Also, when Jesus goes to be baptized by John at the Jordan River, John says to Jesus, *you* should be baptizing *me* - but Jesus replies,
"Let be."

Famous line also in Hamlet, and in Paul McCartney's song catalog.

In some of the old variorum Shakespeare editions, some editors resisted the idea that "Baptista" was an allusion to John the Baptist, claiming it was merely a common female name, but Joseph Ritson (1752-1803) held his ground and said it was. Good for him. Even centuries ago, some Shakespeare scholars wanted to think Shakespeare was above religion, so one tends not to notice those allusions that one doesn't wish to see [2].

Laertes and Ophelia echo aspects of the story of John the Baptist, beheaded at the request of Salome, stepdaughter of Herod Antipas (painting).[3]

Titan's painting of Salome with the head of the prophet on a platter perhaps suggests the Eucharistic aspect of the body of martyred prophets, and that their courage and speaking of truth to power is food for multitudes…

POSTSCRIPT: Commenting on LinkedIn, Philip Milnes-Smith (Digital Archivist at Shakespeare's Globe) notes:
“Also thinking of Baptista Minola in Shrew. He's not much of an ascetic hermit, but the origin story offers a warning of how womanly wiles can push men into doing things against their own inclinations.”
This makes me think: by protesting the improper marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother's divorced wife, John the Baptist was also standing up for a different (more ideal?) standard for marriage -
which, when you're a father of two daughters
(and a character being written by a playwright who was a father of two daughters)
also makes sense...

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

[1] See the Instagram post by shakespearesschoolroom:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DHdX-91tXRg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[2] Previous blog post mentioning the variorum edition and Joseph Ritson’s insistence that “Baptista” alludes to John the Baptist:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/11/hamlet-footnotes-in-need-of-updates.html

[3] On the echoes of the Salome tale in Laertes and Ophelia, see:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/10/in-hamlet-do-laertes-ophelia-echo.html


IMAGE:
Titian (1490–1576),
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist
circa 1515
Galleria Doria Pamphilj
Public domain via
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Vecelli%2C_Tiziano_-_Judith_-_c._1515.jpg

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