Historical reasons for Shakespeare to write a cautious Hamlet who delays

INSTEAD OF ASKING WHY HAMLET DELAYS, let's ask: Why does Shakespeare write Hamlet that way? 

Besides the execution of two wives of Henry VIII, and of many Catholics accused of treason, including Shakespeare’s relative Edward Arden in 1583 [1], what figurative ghosts may have made a cautious Shakespeare write a cautious Hamlet? 

1. In February 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was executed in England for conspiring against Queen Elizabeth I, her cousin. She was found guilty and beheaded.

2. In 1594, Ferdinando Stanley, patron of the Lord Strange's Men (in which Shakespeare and many of his fellow players were active) and possible heir to Elizabeth’s throne, was poisoned after faithfully reporting a plot against Elizabeth I that may have been intended to entrap him [2]. 

3. In February, 1601, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, attempted a rebellion against the English government, a year and a half before Shakespeare's Hamlet first appeared in the stationer's registry (July 1602), and two and a half years before publication of the Hamlet first quarto in mid-late 1603. 

Before the rebellion, Shakespeare's playing company had been paid to perform an older play, Richard II, controversial for its deposition scene, not allowed in print until 1608, years after Elizabeth's death. 

After the rebellion, Augustine Phillips, of Shakespeare's playing company, was interrogated. 

Hamlet displays great caution about whether he can trust the ghost, whether Claudius is guilty, and whether revenge might damn Hamlet himself. This may reflect the heightened caution of Shakespeare, writing the play after these national traumas, when the queen was trying to suppress public speculation about who might succeed her.

So soon after these national traumas, Shakespeare probably knew that if he was going to write another play in which two kings are killed, he'd better make the avenging prince cautious. 

Hamlet’s delay may have had less to do with his character removed from historical context, and more to do with historical and political demands placed on Shakespeare by the task. 

So instead of consulting a psychotherapist to explain Hamlet's delay, maybe a historian has been needed?


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

[1] Edward Arden was Shakespeare’s second cousin once removed on his mother’s side. Arden’s son-in-law John Sommerville had been implicated in an assassination plot against Elizabeth. “Arden was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Smithfield on 20 December 1583” according to the Wikipedia article on Edward Arden, which cites Wizeman, William (2004). "Arden, Edward (1533–1583)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/633. Retrieved 28 August 2013. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.) (subscription required) The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: "Arden, Edward" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

[2] Because Elizabeth had no known children, possible heirs included those descended from siblings of her father, Henry VIII. These siblings included Margaret Tudor and Mary Tudor. James V of Scotland descended from Henry’s sister Margaret, and Lord Strange descended from Henry’s sister Mary. 
 
The plot against Elizabeth that Lord Strange reported was the Hesketh plot of 1593. See Wikipedia article on Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, 5th Earl of Derby: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinando_Stanley,_5th_Earl_of_Derby#Hesketh_plot

IMAGES: 
Upper Left:  Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, circa 1560-1592, National Portrait Gallery. Public domain via 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Queen_of_Scots_portrait.jpg

Upper Right: Dated oil portrait of Fernando Stanley, 5th earl of Derby, 1594. Author unknown. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fernando_Stanley.jpg

Lower right: Title: A genuine and realistic c.1595 portrait of queen Elizabeth I.   
Follower of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561–1636)  (c.1561/62–1636). Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth_I_portrait,_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger_c.1595.jpg
 
Lower Left: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, circa 1596, after Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. National Portrait Gallery. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Devereux,_2nd_Earl_of_Essex_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger.jpg


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