Shakespeare's Hamlet, Jonah, and Looking Glass as cultural conversation

When Shakespeare has his Hamlet abbreviate his sea voyage to England (compared to the Saxo Grammaticus source c. 1185–1208) and change mode of transportation mid-sea, it seems an implied allusion to Jonah not present in Saxo.

Jonah also changed mode of transport mid-sea, swallowed by a fish doing the will of a merciful God; Hamlet was figuratively swallowed by a pirate ship; they imprisoned him, but he described the pirates as "thieves of mercy" [1]

Shakespeare's Hamlet never mentions Jonah explicitly, and neither does the Disney film, Pinocchio (1940) [2], but Pinocchio and Geppetto are actually swallowed by a whale, whereas the pirate ship only figuratively swallows Hamlet, so critics (who are, yes, sometimes far too literal) have been more likely to see Jonah in Pinocchio than in Hamlet's sea voyage.

One might ask: Why was Shakespeare being so subtle instead of being more explicit about his Jonah echo? Was it an artistic/aesthetic choice? Or were there other factors?

The play, A Looking-Glass for London and England, by Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge (written c.1590, published 1594) featured a prophet Jonah who calls the ruler of Nineveh to repent of an incestuous marriage (like Henry VIII). The play would have been popular enough that we can be certain Shakespeare knew it before he completed his Hamlet.

In Lodge and Greene’s play, the ruler of Nineveh is saved from incest when his bride-to-be is struck by lightning. Some might laugh at this today. Shakespeare was more subtle.

Obviously, discussing the prophet Jonah and the problems of incestuous marriages was a familiar topic, familiar enough that Shakespeare revised the Saxo Grammaticus tale of an incestuous marriage, and abbreviated the sea voyage of the prince so that it would bear more resemblances to that of Jonah.

So the subtlety of the Jonah echo [3] may have been in part an artistic preference (like Hamlet's advice to the players, not to exaggerate [3.2.1-47]), but it may also have been unnecessary to be more explicit: Lodge and Greene had already laid the groundwork that enabled Shakespeare’s subtlety [4].

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

[1] Hamlet in his letter to Horatio:
“in the grapple I boarded them.
On the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone
became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like
thieves of mercy…”  - Hamlet 4.6.18-21.

Hamlet implies that the pirates had been unknowing instruments of a merciful Providence.

[2] Disney’s 1940 Pinocchio was based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio.

[3] The title, “A Looking-Glass for London and England,” also uses the metaphor of looking in a mirror: Hamlet uses the glass/mirror metaphor with his mother in the closet scene (3.4.), and the mirror analogy is implied in “The Mousetrap” play (3.2) by which he announces in an earlier scene that he hopes to catch the conscience of the king (2.2.633-4).

[4] I have blogged a number of times in the past about various aspects of the Jonah echo in Hamlet’s sea voyage, including regarding some of the historical context, such as Elizabeth I naming one of her naval ships the “Elizabeth Jonas.” For an index of these posts, see the following link:
Index of posts on Jonah in Hamlet
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/08/index-of-posts-on-jonah-in-hamlet.html

[5] This is my third post about how cultural conversations that were contemporary for Shakespeare enabled his subtlety: For previous posts on this topic, see the following two posts:

[5.a.] “Why Hamlet didn't need too-explicit Davidic allusions in 1599-1604” - 02 November, 2025: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/11/why-hamlet-didnt-need-too-explicit.html

[5.b.] “Shakespeare's Hamlet, Sydney, and Allusion as cultural conversation,” - 11 November, 2025:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/11/shakespeares-hamlet-sydney-and-allusion.html

IMAGES:

Left: Title page of "Looking Glass" by Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene, 1598 (public domain via wikipedia). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greene_Looking_Glass_1598.jpg

Right: Pinocchio by Enrico Mazzanti (1852-1910) - the first illustrator (1883) of Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino - colored by Daniel DONNA. Date: 1883.
Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinocchio.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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