Shakespeare's Hamlet, Sydney, and Allusion as cultural conversation

How do we understand an allusion, such as Shakespeare's Hamlet using a play to catch the conscience of the king, like the prophet Nathan catching the conscience of King David?

Especially after the New Critics, the "death of the author," and disillusionment with “old historicism,” there was a tendency to ignore many aspects of historical-cultural contexts in favor of only what is immediately clear in the text.

This may have seemed a more objective, even empirical approach: If the text doesn't say "Nathan" or "David" or "Bathsheba," or use the same phrasing as the Bible, shall we assume there is no such biblical allusion present? The more subtle the allusion, the more reason to doubt it?

What if we know that many other writers in Shakespeare's time were alluding to or retelling the David story? Did that allow for a kind of shorthand in making allusions?

Last week’s post [1] noted that Shakespeare didn't always have to be explicit; George Peele's popular play, ‘David and Bathsebe’ (1594) made that less necessary.

Philip Sydney's 'The Defence of Poesy' (1580) was another popular text that Shakespeare and his contemporaries knew. Sydney, too, writes of Nathan catching the conscience of David by *feigning* a (fictional) story about a shepherd, so as to hold up a glass (mirror) to show David his moral “filthiness” [2].

Hamlet "feigns" madness and later speaks of holding up a glass for his mother:

You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you. (3.4.24-25)

Instead of viewing allusions narrowly, assuming they need to be as explicit as required for our own new historical-cultural context (or else be dismissed), it is much more helpful to think of them as ongoing conversations among Shakespeare and his contemporaries, in historical contexts about which much is lost, but much might still be retrieved to help notice and contemplate the allusions’ significance.

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

[1] “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

[2] Philip Sydney, 'The Defence of Poesy' (1580): '...Nathan the prophet, who, when the holy David had so far forsaken God as to confirm adultery with murder, when he was to do the tenderest office of a friend, in laying his own shame before his eyes,—sent by God to call again so chosen a servant, how doth he it but by telling of a man whose beloved lamb was ungratefully taken from his bosom? The application most divinely true, but the discourse itself feigned; which made David (I speak of the second and instrumental cause) as in a glass to see his own filthiness, as that heavenly Psalm of Mercy well testifies'.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69375/the-defence-of-poesy

IMAGE:
Unknown author. Attributed to Hieronimo Custodis (fl. 1589–1598).
Sir Philip Sidney.
Posthumous portrait of Sir Philip Sidney, possibly by Hieronimo Custodis, after an original attributed to Cornelis Ketel, 1578, at Longleat House.
Date between 1586 and 1593.
National Portrait Gallery.
Painted for Sir William Russell (?1558-1613) soon after 1586.
Source/Photographer Marilee Cody.
Public domain (for the US) for images 100 years or older. Via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Philip_Sidney_portrait.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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