Claudius as Unrepentant Roman Catholicism (Claudius series, Part 22)
To have Claudius be a murderous, usurping, incestuous, unrepentant sinner, and to have Hamlet mention Nero [2], reveals a great deal about religious-political assumptions of Shakespeare’s time. Claudius is in fact like the Rome of Protestant polemics:
MURDEROUS, POISONING, CONSPIRING, UNREPENTANT:
Catholic Rome was viewed as corrupt and unrepentantly sinful, resisting reform. Rome excommunicated Elizabeth I (1570, 1588) [3]; English Catholics made numerous efforts to assassinate her [4]. Reformers associated the Mass with poison [5]; scholars call the poison cup of Claudius a “black Mass” [6].
INCESTUOUS:
Rome had approved the “incestuous marriage” of Henry VIII to his brother’s widow, and if Elizabeth had accepted the marriage proposal of her brother-in-law Philip II of Spain, undoubtedly would have approved that. Nepotism and simony made Church leaders seem figuratively incestuous.
WARLIKE, USURPING:
Claudius’ Denmark is a “warlike state”; Claudius I of Rome had invaded England (AD 43); and the church later supported the Spanish Armada’s attempted English invasions (1588, ‘96, ‘97), to usurp Elizabeth’s throne and give it to Mary Queen of Scots.
RELIGIOUSLY INTOLERANT:
Roman Emperor Nero had Christians executed, including Peter and Paul. During the reign of Mary I, many Protestants were burned as heretics. If Luther had not been secretly taken from the Diet of Worms to Wartberg Castle, he would have been required to recant or die as a heretic.
For Hamlet to reject Nero's path foreshadows Paulina in The Winter's Tale:
It is an heretic that makes the fire,
not she which burns in't.
(2.3.148-149)
NOT NEUTRAL:
Naming the king “Claudius,” and having Hamlet mention Nero, was not neutral, not merely reflecting Renaissance fascination with ancient Rome. It evoked the oppressive influence of Catholic Rome [7].
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/07/claudius-as-unrepentant-roman.html
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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
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NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu
[1] England and Shakespeare scholarship – after civil wars based in part on religion – would often resist considering how much Claudius and his vices were associated with many of the things that Protestants hated about Catholic Rome. Safer to think of Shakespeare as appealing only to universal themes, not divisive issues of his time.
[2] Hamlet 3.2.427.
[3] In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth I, and in 1588, Pope Sixtus V renewed the excommunication. This meant English subjects were not obligated to obey her, which made her vulnerable to revolt and assassination.
[4] These include [a] the Ridolfi Plot (1571), [b] the Babington Plot (1586), and [c] the Throckmorton Plot (1583):
[4.a.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridolfi_plot
[4.b.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babington_Plot
[4.c.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throckmorton_Plot
[5] This is attributed to [a] John Knox and [b] Thomas Cranmer:
[4.a] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestantism/The-role-of-John-Knox
[4.b.] Thomas Cranmer also spoke of poison in a similar way, associated with Catholic mass:
"It pitieth me to see the simple and hungry flock of Christ led into corrupt pastures, to be carried blindfolded they know not whither, and to be fed with poison in the stead of wholesome meats."
"...beware of that great harlot [Revelation 14, 17, 18.], that is to say, the pestiferous see of Rome, that she make you not drunk with her pleasant wine. Trust not her sweet promises, nor banquet with her; for instead of wine she will give you sour dregs, and for meat she will feed you with rank poison."
"The wine also will poison, (as divers Bishops of Rome have had experiences, both in poisoning of other, and being poisoned themselves,) which poisoning they cannot ascribe to the most wholesome blood of our Saviour Christ, but only to the poisoned wine."
https://newwhitchurch.press/cranmer/supper
[6] As a “black Mass,” it represents a distortion: Instead of a sacrament of life-giving grace, it is murderous and scheming. See page 434, Zysk, Jay. "In the Name of the Father: Revenge and Unsacramental Death in Hamlet."
Available for free at https://www.academia.edu/34033072/In_the_Name_of_the_Father_Revenge_and_Unsacramental_Death_in_Hamlet
Original at Christianity & Literature 66, no. 3 (2017): 422-443. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/738477
“Should Laertes's plot to kill Claudius fail, Claudius devises an additional plan by which he will serve Hamlet a chalice of poisoned wine. He says, And that he calls for drink, Ill have prepared him / A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, / If he by chance escape your venomed stuck, Our purpose may hold there (4.7.130–33). While chalice denotes an ordinary drinking cup, its sacramental resonance would be easily apparent to members of Shakespeares audience since such a vessel was used in both the Catholic Mass and the reformed Order of Communion. [....] Claudius’s chalice is the uncanny inverse of the Eucharistic chalice, for like Laertes’s poisoned rapier, it brings about imminent death rather than eternal life.” (434)
[7] Even moderate Catholics of Shakespeare’s time were among those who wished to be faithful English subjects and were disappointed in Catholic leadership that would burn heretics and make war on England. See Ridgedell, Thomas, “That Spanified League: The Elizabethan Catholic Community and Resistance to the Jesuits,” University of Mississippi, eGrove, Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 1-1-2014: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2425&context=etd
See also controversies such as [a] the "Wisbech Stirs," [b] the Appellant Controversy, and the Archpriest Controversy:
[7.a.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisbech_Stirs
[7.b.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archpriest_Controversy
IMAGES, L-R:
LEFT: Portrait of Pope Pius V, by Bartolomeo Passarotti and workshop (1529–1592), circa 1566.
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Public domain via Wikipedia:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bartolomeo_Passarotti_-_Pius_V.jpg
CENTER: Philip II of Spain. Antonis Mor (–1575), circa 1566.
Public doman via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_II_of_Spain_by_Antonio_Moro.jpg
RIGHT: Portrait of Pope Sixtus V (painter unnamed), public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Pope_Sixtus_V.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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