Hamlet's Denmark as prison, John 14:2, and Dante

When Hamlet says, “Denmark’s a prison…in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons,” there is a bitter, sarcastic echo of John 14:2, “In my father’s house there are many dwelling places” – but all four major reference works on Shakespeare and the Bible since 1905 ignore it [1]

HAMLET What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN Prison, my lord?
HAMLET Denmark’s a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ Then is the world one.
HAMLET A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’
th’ worst.
(2.2.58-66)

Compare:
In my Father’s house are many dwelling places: [...]
- John 14:2 [2]

Instead of God sending people to their dwelling as in John 14, Fortune sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hence to Denmark as prison, in Hamlet's statement. 

Why do these reference works miss or ignore this allusion? Probably for its bitter twist to sarcasm. Especially by Act 5, scene 2, Hamlet’s biblical allusions are more straightforward, but this early in the play, Hamlet is bitter, and the possible allusion is therefore masked. 

WHY IT MATTERS:
The play is not merely about a prince who feels imprisoned because he can’t return to Wittenberg. The ghost told Hamlet,

“I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
And for the day confined to fast in fires
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away.”

This describes purgatory, the existence of which was debated during the Reformation in Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Dante’s Divine Comedy imagined nine levels of hell and seven of purgatory, which also relates to John 14:2. Scholars had assumed that Shakespeare did not know Dante’s work because it was Catholic and endorsed the idea of purgatory, and was not published in English until 1782. But translator John Florio owned a copy dated 1564 [3], wrote in its margins, and moved in the same social circles as Shakespeare [4]. This copy was recently rediscovered in the British Library [5], and may shed light on other possible allusions by Shakespeare to Dante [6].

So Hamlet’s remarks about the “many confines, wards, and dungeons” may be a nod to Dante as well as to John 14.

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

[1] Naseeb Shaheen, Biblical References in Shakespeare's Plays, 1999.

Peter Milward, Biblical Influences in Shakespeare's Great Tragedies (1987).

Richmond Noble, Shakespeare's Biblical Knowledge and Use of the Book of Common Prayer… (1935).
Available to access for free at Archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/shakespearesbibl0000nobl/page/n5/mode/2up

Thomas Carter, Shakespeare and the Holy Scripture, with the Version He Used (1905).
Available to access for free at Archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/cu31924077732570/page/n5/mode/2up

[2] John 14:2 is the same in both the Geneva (home) and Bishops Bible (church) translations.

[3] Iannaccone, Marianna, "Cieláre, to enskie or enheauen": John Florio's copy of Dante's Divina Commedia
Creators, Mar 21, 2025. https://zenodo.org/records/15063366

[4] Iannaccone, Marianna. “A Newly Discovered 16th-Century Copy of The Divine Comedy Linked to John Florio Sheds Light on Shakespeare’s Influences“, https://www.resolutejohnflorio.com/john-florio-dante-shakespeare
Resolute John Florio, 2025.

[5] Kington, Tom, “Unearthed book proves Shakespeare ‘cribbed from Dante’”, Friday May 23 2025, 5.30pm BST, The Times, https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/unearthed-book-shakespeare-dante-pgk232pmh

[6] “Evidence Dante was quoted by Shakespeare claim researchers
In copy of Divine Comedy in British Library,” ROME, 24 March 2025, ANSA English Desk.
https://www.ansa.it/english/english/news/2025/03/24/evidence-dante-was-quoted-by-shakespeare-claim-researchers_99677c6b-991a-4f14-9149-dc96975f5281.html


IMAGES:

Upper left: Domenico di Michelino (1417–1491)
After Alesso Baldovinetti (1425–1499)
Italian: La Divina Commedia di Dante
Dante Alighieri with Florence and the Realms of the Divine Comedy (Hell, Purgatory, Paradise)
Description
English: Dante and His Poem by Domenico di Michelino
Date 1465
Florence Cathedral
Public domain, via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Dante_Domenico_di_Michelino.jpg

Upper right: Antonio da Correggio (1489–1534)
Title
English: Assumption of the Virgin
Date between 1526 and 1530
Medium fresco
Parma Cathedral
Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Correggio%2C_Assumption_of_the_Virgin%2C_Duomo%2C_Parma_01.jpg

Lower left: Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510)
English: Chart of Hell.
Français : La Carte de l'Enfer.
Español: Mapa del Infierno, obra de Sandro Botticelli.
Italiano: La mappa dell'Inferno.
Date between 1480 and 1490
Collection
English: Vatican Library.
Français : Bibliothèque apostolique vaticane.
Español: Biblioteca Apostólica Vaticana.
Current location
Vatican City. Public domain via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sandro_Botticelli_-_La_Carte_de_l%27Enfer.jpg

Lower right: Kerry James Marshall
American, born 1955
“Many Mansions,” Date: 1994, On loan to Royal Academy (Great Britain) in London.
About this artwork:
Many Mansions is the first in Kerry James Marshall’s series of five large-scale paintings depicting public housing projects in Chicago and Los Angeles such as Rockwell Gardens, Wentworth Gardens, or, as in Many Mansions, Stateway Gardens. Struck by the absurdity of the term “garden” to describe these failed solutions to low-income housing, Marshall was inspired to represent the profound contradictions of living in such an environment. Many Mansions is filled with ironic and startling juxtapositions of the real and artificial—from the unnaturally cheerful landscape to the three haunting, ebony-skinned figures dressed in nostalgic Sunday best. The title of the painting, visible on the red ribbon above, is a variation on Christ’s oft-quoted remark found in John [14:2]: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.”
Fair use via https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d94d0e3d-5d89-ce07-ee0f-7fa6d8def8ab/full/843,/0/default.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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