Blasphemous Claudius revisited (Part 19, Claudius series)

An idea central to the Protestant Reformation was salvation by “faith alone,” not works [1]. This may help to understand why Marjorie Garber says the drinking game of Claudius approaches blasphemy [2].

Claudius’s drinking game is a celebration of works: Can the king drink the whole flagon without stopping? Fire the cannon! Best king? Claudius! To his health! Long live Claudius! Fire the cannon!

The works of Claudius result in “earthly thunder” that the heavens “re-speak” [3] (echo).

This is deeply ironic: the work of Claudius by which he obtained the throne was a work of poisoning, fratricide, regicide, usurpation, and lying to cover it up.

Celebrate, fire the cannon: He got away with it?

When Hamlet tries to conspire – to force his “works” to achieve revenge for his father’s death – he makes mistakes, and innocent people (like Polonius) are killed (3.4).

Only late in the play does he articulate his new faith:
“There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will” (5.2.11-12).
He has only been rough-hewing his destiny by his actions (works), but he is not the one ultimately in control; “The readiness is all” (5.2.236-7), so he must wait in faith and “let be” (5.2.238), believing that an opportunity will be revealed as things unfold.

By emphasizing his works, Claudius and his drinking game falsely claim for himself credit that belongs to God.

This may be difficult for us to perceive and understand, especially if we live in cultures that love drinking games, or political and military leaders celebrating themselves with loud artillery.

And if we don’t take biblical claims literally (as I often do not), we may assume that we cannot be blasphemous if in truth there is no God to be angry (in a literal sense) at our disrespect.

But salvation by faith – or faith and works – and blasphemy, were things that were perhaps more real to more people of Shakespeare’s time.

INDEX on “Claudius” in Hamlet instead of “Feng” (Nov 19, 2024)
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/11/index-why-claudius-not-feng-whats-in.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] Catholicism had tried to argue that works can cooperate with the grace of God, and perhaps the selling of indulgences was an example of this, but leading Protestant thinkers in England and on the continent disagreed. See Ephesians 2:8-9 (1599 Geneva translation)
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast himself.

[2] See Garber, Marjorie, Shakespeare After All, Anchor Books, New York, 2004, page 482:
“It even approaches blasphemy, when we hear [...] that every time the King drinks, the cannons will blaze away, and ‘The King’s Rouse the heavens shall bruit again, / respeaking earthly thunder’.... Properly, thunder is heavenly, not earthly, but in this figure the King, not the gods, is the origin, and the skies can only ‘re-speak,’ or echo, what he says and does.”

[3] No jocund health that Denmark drinks today
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the King’s rouse the heaven shall bruit again,
Respeaking earthly thunder.
(1.2.129-132)


IMAGE:
Alan Bates as Claudius in Hamlet. Director: Franco Zeffirelli. Warner Bros. (1990).
Via YouTube (fair use): https://youtu.be/BoNAEfrI2oQ?si=YH7F7g__-rz1e3hf


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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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