Does our Sir Thomas More differ from Hamlet's?
Catholic worship was illegal in England until 1791 [1]. More was beatified in 1886, canonized a saint in 1935.
In 1960 JFK became the first Catholic US president [2]. Robert Bolt's “A Man for All Seasons,” a play about More that won a 1962 Tony Award, had by the time of JFK’s 1963 assassination finished a successful Broadway run of 637 shows since 1961 after its London debut [3]. The hero of the play, More would not support Henry VIII's quest for a divorce from his first wife, resulting in his execution, a martyr for conscience.
Henry had sought special permission (‘dispensation’) to marry his dead brother’s widow (the church usually considered such marriages incestuous), but after 24 years of marriage and a daughter, Henry famously changed his mind after his affair with Anne Boleyn, and no thriving male heirs.
Shakespeare used More’s historical writing as a basis for Richard III, and is thought to have collaborated on “Sir Thomas More” with four others [4], a play that famously has More quell an anti-immigrant mob in London.
While sometimes critical in portrayal of Catholic authorities, Shakespeare’s plays tend to be more sympathetic to Catholic friars and novices than many other playwrights of his time [5].
For these reasons, it has usually seemed to me that when Hamlet calls his uncle a “moor,” it may be unlikely that he’s punning on Thomas More’s name, though the insult still implies far less than ideal land in farming terms (often prone to bogs or swamps), and perhaps a racial [6] and religious insult as well, perhaps comparing a darker-haired uncle to a Muslim, given that Muslims were considered enemies of Christendom through multiple crusades.
But to resist reading “moor” as “More,” is this too much a 21st century reading, and not attuned enough to Hamlet, who studied at Wittenberg (associated with Martin Luther)?
What might it have meant during the long reign of Elizabeth I, to insult someone by calling them a “Thomas More”?
And why might that insult belong in Hamlet, a play about an incestuous marriage? (To be continued…)
NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu
[1] After Catholic worship was legalized in 1791, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 made it possible for Catholics to serve in Parliament and in other capacities.
[2] In 1928, Al Smith was the first Roman Catholic candidate for US president endorsed by a major party, but lost; JFK was the first Catholic US president.
[3] Bolt's version built upon the 1950s successes of BBC Radio and TV incarnations of the Thomas More story.
[4] Sir Thomas More was initially by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, with contributions and revisions by Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, and William Shakespeare; it premiered around 1591–93.
[5] Shakespeare has an apparition that may be a ghost from purgatory in Hamlet (which may seem a Catholic detail, as Catholics were more likely to believe in purgatory), and he has generally more favorable treatment of friars (Romeo & Juliet) and nuns (novitiate Isabella), as compared to many of his more hard-line Protestant contemporaries. The friar in Romeo and Juliet tries to fake Juliet’s death to save their marriage, and through no fault of his, a message is not delivered on time due to a plague….
[6] In fact, we might differentiate between “Moor” as racial (dark) and as religious (Muslim) iinsults.
“In Patricia Parker's 2003 essay, "Black Hamlet Battening on the Moor" (Shakespeare Studies, Vol. 31), she masterfully discusses the line from Hamlet 3.4 in which, for his mother's benefit, the prince compares his dead father to a "fair mountain" and his Uncle Claudius to a swamp or "moor," analyzing many implications of the phrase as "part of the racialized lexicon of color" (144) in this and other plays. She notes that others before her like Dover Wilson have picked up on at least the double meaning in this passage, a first meaning being geographical (mountain vs. swamp), and a second being a racialized meaning (a fair and good Nordic Arian vs. a dark and evil "moor").”
“MOORISH LIVES MATTER: Hamlet, Luther, & the Expanding Ottoman Empire” - September 15, 2020, https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2020/09/moorish-lives-matter-hamlet-luther.html
IMAGE:
A Man for All Seasons, 1966 film poster via Original Film Art (out of stock), fair use:
https://www.originalfilmart.com/cdn/shop/products/a_man_for_all_seasons_1966_style_C_original_film_art_5000x.jpg?v=1603826310
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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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