Hamlet, Prodigals, Fatted Calves, and Caesar as Capital Calf

References to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from Horatio (1.1) and from Polonius (3.2) may remind us that Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar (published 1599), only shortly preceded his Hamlet (published 1603-4); the earlier play may still have been in the company’s repertoire. But besides good advertising, why mention Julius in this play?

HORATIO:

“In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets” (1.1.125-8)

Horatio is at first a doubting Thomas, yet he mentions not graves opening after Jesus’ death (Matt 27:51-53), but another J.C.: Julius Caesar, tyrant who crossed the Rubicon with his army, violating the social order.

Polonius mentions playing Caesar at university, killed in the capital: “Brutus killed me.”

HAMLET: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.” (3.2.111-2)

This foreshadows that Hamlet will stab Polonius in a later scene.

KILLING A CALF:

Laertes (1.3.40) and Polonius (1.3.125) both use the word “prodigal” to shame Ophelia about seeing Hamlet. The gospel tale of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32) ends with the wayward son’s repentance and return, celebrated by killing and feasting on a fatted calf. (Shakespeare’s father was a glove maker; the family was familiar with leather and the animals from which it came [1].)

Many things are “fatted” in Hamlet:

The dead king (“grossly, full of bread” [3.3.85]);

birds (“fatted all the region’s kites” [2.2.606];

crammed capons [3.2.100-1];

Gertrude ("feed/And batten on this moor?" [3.4.76-7]);

worms and maggots [4.3.22-35];

and people [4.3.25].

But calf-killing in Luke 15 contrasts with Brutus killing Caesar, “so capital a calf.”

Significance? 

For those (like Laertes) who repent and help to heal broken communities, celebration is called for and reestablishes social equilibrium. But for tyrants (like Claudius or Caesar) who fat themselves, greedy for power (and a brother's wife), these may themselves be fatted calves, ready for slaughter [2].

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

[1] See Duncan-Jones, Katherine. “Did the Boy Shakespeare Kill Calves?” The Review of English Studies 55, no. 219 (2004): 183–95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3661270.

[2] In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, 2.1, Brutus says, ""And, gentle friends, / Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius." 

This supports the connection between the killing of the fatted calf in thanksgiving for the return of the prodigal, as connected to the killing of Caesar, and perhaps also as connected to similar embodiments of the theme in the Bible, such as the substitution of a ram - Abraham in thanksgiving for not having to sacrifice  Isaac. 

IMAGES: 

Left: Rembrandt (1606–1669), “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” circa 1668. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Cropped. Public domain via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_(Rembrandt)#/media/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz_van_Rijn_-_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Right: Quote: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy, speech on the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, 13 March, 1962. I chose this quote before the US attack on Iran on February 28, 2026, and also before President Tr0mp's use of ICE paramilitary forces invaded the state of Minnesota where I live, racially profiling citizens, detaining them and peaceful protesters along with legal immigrants who had been following the legal process for seeking asylum in the US. This was not so much Tr0mp enforcing immigration law, but using this as an excuse to intimidate and terrorize “blue” states that had voted for the opposition Democratic party in the last election, instead of for his own Republican party. 
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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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