Claudius as Unrepentant Roman Catholicism (Claudius series, Part 22)
Claudius is murderous, incestuous, usurping, and unrepentant. His name points to two Roman emperors, and in the final act, Claudius conspires to poison a chalice of wine for his nephew in what scholars often describe as a "black mass" [1].
Shakespeare re-wrote this story during the English Reformation, when reformers like John Knox and Thomas Cranmer were associating the Catholic Mass with poison [2]. It’s very possible that Shakespeare was critical of various aspects of Roman Catholic leadership, in spite of oft-observed Catholic sympathies [3].
All of the sins of Claudius were, in Shakespeare’s time, strongly associated with Roman Catholicism:
- Murderous: English Catholics plotted to assassinate Elizabeth [4].
- Incestuous: Roman authorities gave special permission (dispensation, 1503) for Henry VIII to marry the widow of his dead older brother, an “incestuous” marriage Henry famously claimed to believe was the reason he had no living male heir by his first wife, later leading to a split with Rome and great troubles.
- Usurping: Catholics were involved in efforts to have Elizabeth replaced with Mary Queen of Scots, usurping the English throne, as well as four efforts to have Spain invade England to accomplish this (1588, 1596, 1597, 1601, the first three under Philip II of Spain, who had enjoyed the title of King of England during the reign of Mary I). If successful, a Spanish invasion would have resulted in many deaths.br />
- Unrepentant: Rome did not repent of any of these things, but assumed it was acting in the right [5].
Numerous controversies demonstrated that English Catholics were not of one mind, and many were critical of what Roman Church authorities imposed [6].
We may not easily think to read the play this way today, but in Shakespeare's religiously-charged times, the character of Claudius offered playgoers an analogy for Roman Catholic corruption.
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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] 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)
[2] This is attributed to [a] John Knox and [b] Thomas Cranmer:
[2.a] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestantism/The-role-of-John-Knox
[2.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
[3] Many have noted that Shakespeare is more sympathetic in his portrayal of certain Catholic religious such as Friars (Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, and the novitiate Isabella in Measure for Measure), but because we often think in binaries - Catholic or Protestant? - we may resist considering that even with Catholic sympathies, Shakespeare may have been a harsh critic of Rome in his time.
[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] Although the reformation is often associated with Protestantism, in fact many reformers had come before Protestantism broke from Rome: These included monastic reformers and orders such as Franciscans and Cistercians, reformed by Bernard of Clairvaux (hence the first two on stage are Francisco and Bernardo) - but the efforts of such reformers was not sufficient to root out the abuses that had long troubled the Catholic Church.
[6] 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:
[6.a.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisbech_Stirs
[6.b.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archpriest_Controversy
IMAGES, L-R:
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
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
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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