Links to Lepers in Hamlet

LINKS TO LEPERS IN HAMLET:
References to tales of famous lepers, confusion about them, and those who cared for them:

1. The ghost says the poison made his skin lazar-like (1.5), like that of the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31 [1]; 
- Claudius poured “the leperous distillment" in the “porches" of the ghost's ear (1.5): In some art, the beggar Lazarus is left untended on the porches of the rich man’s house. 
- Ophelia’s “the owl was a baker’s daughter” (4.5) references a folktale retelling of the Luke 16 gospel tale; 
- Horatio’s “angels sing thee to thy rest” (5.2) references the Requiem Mass lines based on the Lazarus story.

2. The saint-namesake of the sentinel Francisco (1.1) is Francis of Assisi, who cared for lepers, and famously kissed one [2]. (Katherine of Aragon’s confessor was a Franciscan, John Forest, burned at the stake for opposing Henry’s divorce.)  

3. In medieval and Elizabethan times, leprosy and venereal disease were confused, and leprosy thought to be caused by sexual vice [3] of which Claudius and Gertrude are accused, and for which Laertes counsels his sister Ophelia to be cautious, and in fear of which Polonius forbids Ophelia to see Hamlet. The blister that Hamlet says replaced the rose on his mother’s forehead has been said to suggest ulcerous sores from syphilis. 

4. William Burgess notes (1904) that Hamlet's ill fortune is like that of Job, who like Hamlet also had friends advising him [4]. Job’s sufferings included skin sores, so Job was traditionally considered a leper.

5. Hamlet wishes Polonius were as honest as a fishmonger, and that "To be honest, as this world goes, is to / be one man picked out of ten thousand." (2.2.194-195)
- This 10k-to-1 ratio echos Luke 17:11-19 (read every year in Shakespeare’s lifetime) where Jesus healed 10 lepers, and only one (a foreigner, a Samaritan) was "honest"  and returned to thank him.  Like the leper who came back, Hamlet came back to apologize to Laertes, a similar re-balancing of scales or “quietus” [5] in light of faith or transcendent indebtedness.

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

[1] This is the Lazarus in the tale of the Rich Man and Lazarus, not to be confused with another reference in John 11:1–45 to a man named Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, raised from death by Jesus. For more on the allusion and echoes of the Lazarus-Rich Man story in Hamlet, see my previous series on that topic, from 2012: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/index-series-on-rich-man-and-beggar.html

[2] Thomas of Celano, Vita Beati Francisci, Book 1, Chapter 7, paragraph 17. 

[3] Brody, Saul Nathan. 1974. The disease of the soul: A study in the moral association of leprosy in medieval literature. Brody notes that medieval medicine considered leprosy to be transmitted "by sexual intercourse or, more particularly, illicit sexual intercourse" (46), and with few exceptions, by the sixteenth century, medicine "associates leprosy with syphilis" (58). https://archive.org/details/diseaseofsoullep0000brod/page/n5/mode/2up 
See also Hsy, Jonathan, ‘“Be more strange and bold”: Kissing Lepers and Female Same-Sex Desire in The Book of Margery Kempe’, Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 5 (2010), 189-99. 

Assuming that his son may have had such vices, Polonius sends a spy to France after his son Laertes. If Laertes may be "drabbing," and if Brody is correct, Polonius may assume that his son could get or have a venereal disease. Some think the sonnets reveal that Shakespeare had a veneral disease; the Earl of Essex plotted the downfall and execution of Roderigo Lopez, personal physician to the queen, after the doctor revealed the earl’s venereal disease. 

[4] Burgess, William, The Bible in Shakespeare, pages 64-66. The Winona Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill. 1904. https://archive.org/details/bibleinshakspear00burg/page/64/mode/2up?q=job

[5] Jesus tells the one leper, "Your faith has healed you" - faith including a recognition that one is always in debt to God, so one should act grateful for any kindness or charity - and in that way to honor hospitality. 
- This tale is in part about an honest recognition of the balancing of scales, or settling of debts (or making “quietus,” as John R. Yamamoto-Wilson notes for Hamlet 3.1.83 [5]): John observes that making “quietus” is not literally about suicide, but about balancing a ledger related to debts. In his “To be or not” speech, Hamlet seems to be thinking more specifically about settling debts by taking revenge, but the play is also about seeking forgiveness (from Laertes) - and settling debts with Young Fortinbras, whose father had been killed by Hamlet’s Father. John’s Youtube video relating to “quietus” and the “to be or not” speech can be found here: https://youtu.be/erp1nJx3jHA 
I blogged about it here:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/11/john-yamamoto-wilson-on-quietus-and.html
IMAGES clockwise from upper left: 
UPPER LEFT: Saint Francis Embracing a Leper, ca. 1787. González Velázquez, Zacarías, Museo Del Prado, Madrid. Copyright by Museo Del Prado, permission for scholarly non-profit use, via https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/saint-francis-embracing-a-leper/1efafbe0-962e-43e3-98ee-23016e324dc0

UPPER RIGHT: From The Book of Job in Illuminated Manuscripts.List of Byzantine Manuscripts with Cyclic Illustration. Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Ca. 900. Public domain via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_30#/media/File:VAT749fol28v.JPG

BOTTOM RIGHT: "The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man," 1618/1628, Workshop of Domenico Fetti, 1589-1623. National Gallery of Art, USA, open access image, cropped. Via https://api.nga.gov/iiif/380d0db5-1a74-4820-bc80-f75d7b6fe2fe/full/!800,800/0/default.jpg 

BOTTOM LEFT: The one leper (of 10) who was healed by Jesus and returned to thank him: “Jesus Heals a Leper,” From the Sermons of Maurice de Sully. Italian (Milan or Genoa), c. 1320-1330. Location: Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Public domain, via the blog, “Ad Imaginem Dei”: https://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2012/02/leper-and-chapel.html


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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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