Why Claudius as a (Thomas) "More" was an insult in Hamlet 3.4

Thomas More and Hamlet’s uncle Claudius were both, in their own ways, defenders of incestuous marriage.

More would not agree to Henry VIII’s plan to break from Rome to get his divorce from his first wife, a marriage that the church had considered incestuous from the start: Henry and Catherine had to ask Rome for special permission to marry in the first place [1].

So for Hamlet to refer to Claudius as a “moor” - meaning also a “More” - would be entirely appropriate. 

In Act 3, scene 4, when Hamlet refers to his father favorably as a “fair mountain” and his uncle insultingly as a "moor," to the Elizabethan ear, audiences heard no difference between "moor," or "Moor," or the last name of Thomas More [2]. 

Today, many may consider Thomas More a martyr for conscience who opposed Henry’s quest for divorce [3]. There is nothing wrong with this view, but it is incomplete: It doesn’t consider how some Elizabethans understood More. 

By the end of her life, Elizabeth I was the longest-reigning English monarch. She put down rebellions, survived assassination attempts, reformed poor laws, supported education, aided Protestants in the Netherlands and France, encouraged English privateers to prey on Spanish ships, led England in facing the threat of Spanish invasions, and when rough weather helped defeat Spain’s Armada, it seemed that God was on Elizabeth's side - and England's.

But Elizabeth’s long reign had been contingent upon her father’s claim that he needed to repent of a biblically  incestuous first marriage. If Henry had remained married to his first wife, taking the advice of More, then at best, Elizabeth might merely have been an illegitimate daughter of a royal mistress, not in line for the throne. Because Henry opposed More, Elizabeth became a famous queen.

So among other possible meanings of the word “moor” [4], it was absolutely appropriate for Hamlet to call Claudius a "More," a defender of an incestous marriage, and an enabler of corruption in high places.


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

[1] The special permission Henry requested and received to marry his dead brother’s widow is called “dispensation,” issued in 1503. Kathrine and Henry claimed that Catherine’s marriage to Arthur had never been consummated, but to get his divorce, Henry later claimed it had been, and that his marriage to her was therefore incestuous. This was essentially calling Catherine a liar, but she never claimed otherwise, although there were witnesses who alleged in fact it had been consummated. Pope Clement VII did not grant the annulment, in part under pressure from the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was a nephew of Catherine of Aragon.

[2] Though most early audience members had not seen a script, even they had, it was an age during which spelling had not yet been standardized, so there were many variations in spellings, and such wordplay and puns were among Shakespeare's specialties..

[3] See previous post, “Does our Sir Thomas More differ from Hamlet's?” - November 24, 2025: 
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/11/does-our-sir-thomas-more-differ-from.html

[4] A. On its surface, for Hamlet in conversation with his mother in 3.4 to contrast his father as a “fair mountain” with his uncle as a “moor” is to call his uncle less majestic land, not especially fertile for farming, and prone to swamps and bogs. 
B. But we know from plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream that it was more popular for a person in England to have fair hair and complexion like Helena than to be darker like Hermia, or like the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets: Darkness can be associated with evil, so people of darker complexion (such as Moors) were at a disadvantage (as shown in Othello). This may have been an opportunity for Claudius to be played by a darker-haired actor. 
C. There is, however, also a religious aspect to “Moor,” meaning Muslim, those “other” people against whom Christendom had launched at least nine crusades. 
D. Thomas More, as a fourth meaning of “moor,” has an important connection to incestuous marriage that makes this possibility hard to ignore for Hamlet. 


IMAGES 
Left: Pope Clement VII, who refused to grant Henry VIII’s request for an annulment of his first marriage. 
Artist: Sebastiano del Piombo (1485–1547). Circa 1531. 
J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_VII#/media/File:El_papa_Clemente_VII,_por_Sebastiano_del_Piombo.jpg

Center: Queen Elizabeth I (artist unknown), circa 1585-1590 (“found in a seventeenth-century farmhouse in England in 1890.”). National Portrait Gallery. Public domain, via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Elizabeth_I_of_England_c1585-90.jpg

Right: 
Sir Thomas More
Copy of Holbein by Peter Paul Rubens, 1577 - 1640. 
Circa 1625 - 1630. 
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. Public domain via 
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/sir-thomas-more/46d80512-addb-4ecd-8a71-f9333e048ad0


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