Hamlet's worms and Jesus as Worm in Ps 22 and the Ordinary Gloss

Some may feel squeamish when Hamlet speaks of how the body of Polonius is at a feast, not where he eats but where he is eaten - by worms (4.3.19-27). Scholars note that this is a Eucharistic analogy [1].

Worms have had interesting meanings since medieval times. The Glossa Ordinaria (1480), or Ordinary Gloss, collected insights from many bible scholars. I have compared Hamlet's sea voyage to that of Jonah; it turns out that in The Ordinary Gloss on the Book of Jonah [2], a worm plays a key role:

While Jonah is angry and hoping still to witness the destruction of Nineveh, God makes a gourd plant sprout up to give Jonah shade in the hot sun (a mercy).

Later God sends a worm to eat the gourd plant. This frustrates Jonah.

Reading figuratively, ancient commenters viewed the gourd plant as Israel, which for a time flourished, but was eclipsed by Christianity converting the Gentiles, a new "chosen people."

Jesus in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 quotes Psalm 22 from the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"  One commenter notes that this psalm is therefore not only the psalmist King David speaking, but also Jesus.

In verse 6, the psalm continues:
"But I am a worm, and not a man: a shame of men, and the contempt of the people." 

In Ps 22 as spoken by Jesus, he calls himself a worm.

A worm who loves me. The Bible tells me so.

This commenter believed Jesus, present from the beginning of time, is the worm that ate Jonah’s gourd plant, the worm that transcended the old covenant.

Another believed Rome was the worm.

Combine the claims: The worm of Rome was a scourge used by the eternal Christ to destroy the Jerusalem temple.

Hamlet (“scourge and minister” 3.4.196) quotes scripture saying "There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow" (5.2.233-4); if it's part of God's plan when a sparrow falls, then why not what worms eat?

Some of this meaning attached to worms may still have been present in Shakespeare’s time (tho’ not so much in ours), influencing his use of the motif in Hamlet.

NOTES: All references to Hamlet (and other Shakespeare plays) are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu 

[1] In this analogy, Jesus is at a feast where he is eaten as Eucharist. 
The analogy is continued later, when Hamlet tells Claudius “how a king may go a
progress through the guts of a beggar” (4.3.34-35). This may seem a threat to Claudius (like “eat the rich”), but it also applies if Jesus is the Eucharist and king that goes a progress through the guts of a beggar, implications of which were often invoked in Protestant satire of Catholic Eucharist. 
Hamlet also says, “A man may fish with the worm that hath eat
of a king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that
Worm.” (4.3.30-32). In four gospels (Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20, Luke 5:2-11, and John 1:40-42) Jesus described himself as a “fisher of people” so it would be appropriate for the worm (Jesus) to be used to catch fish (followers).   

[2] McDERMOTT, RYAN. “The Ordinary Gloss on Jonah.” PMLA 128, no. 2 (2013): 424–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23489069.
Open Access here via Pitt.edu: 
https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/18871/1/McDermott_-_The_Ordinary_Gloss_on_Jonah_%28offprint%29.pdf



IMAGES:
Left: Transi of Rene de Chalons. Image from French Ministry of Culture.
Fair use via https://i0.wp.com/hauntedpalaceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ligier-richier-transi_rchalons.jpg?resize=327%2C491&ssl=1

Center: Parasites: a parasitical worm, shown much enlarged, with its hosts. Gouache painting by J. Svoboda after L.W. Sambon. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Via Wikipedia, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Parasites%3B_a_parasitical_worm%2C_shown_much_enlarged%2C_with_its_Wellcome_V0025012.jpg

Right: Leonardo da Vinci
Anatomical study of the human skull
1489
Royal Collection, London
https://www.pubhist.com/works/19/large/leonardo_vinci_anatomical_study_human_skull.jpg

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