HAMLET & the FIRST COMMANDMENT: Satan & Pride, Worst of Sins - Series

The First Commandment, "THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BUT ME,” doesn’t mention pride, but Christian tradition considered it to be like playing god, the worst of the seven deadly sins from which the others proceed [1]. 

By apocryphal tradition it was the sin of Satan and the fallen angels, who in their pride believed they were equal to God or might usurp God’s throne [2]. 

KING HAMLET & OLD FORTINBRAS:

Horatio in 1.1 notes pride:

[…] our last king, [...]

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Thereto pricked on by a most emulate *pride,*

Dared to the combat…

(1.1.92-96) 

King Hamlet was “Dared to the combat”; instead of humbly urging peace instead of violence, “pricked on by… emulate pride,” he accepted the challenge and killed the Norwegian king, both of them gambling their lives and sons’ inheritance – and the future of their countries – on pride. 

No “sealed compact,” “law” or “heraldry” (1.1.98-101) can excuse this sin of pride, and it may be among the reasons the ghost says he is being “purged” after death for his “foul crimes” done in his life (“days of nature,” 1.5.17).

Even Barnardo in 1.1 thinks King Hamlet “was and is the question of these wars” (1.1.123), so Denmark is still haunted by the pride and sins of its dead king….

The fallen angels wanted to “emulate” God, wanted to be equal to God, so to describe pride as “emulate” is fitting. 

CLAUDIUS:
Claudius has a similar habit of pride and heaven-emulation in his drinking game (1.2.129-132): In his revels, he drinks, then has the “great cannon” fired, to make the heavens “respeak” (echo, emulate) his earthly thunder. He wants to play god [3]. 

Claudius at prayer (3.3) resembles Jesus’ “agony in the garden,” but instead of “thy will be done,” Claudius resolves to do his own will to retain his crown, ambition, and queen, not what he knows to be the will of God. 

Claudius knows what God would have him do, but wants himself to be his own ruler, not God. This is a dramatic embodiment of the sin of pride. 

INDEX to this series on Hamlet and the Ten Commandments:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/07/series-index-ten-commandments-in-hamlet.html

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

[1] Since the sixth century and Pope Gregory I, pride was called “queen” of the seven deadly sins, from which the others proceed. 

[2] See for example 2 Enoch 29: 

“And from the rock I cut off a great fire, and from the fire I created the ranks of the bodiless armies – the myriad angels – and their weapons are fiery and their clothes are burning flames. And I gave orders that each should stand in his own rank.

|Here Satanail was hurled from the height, together with his angels.|

But one from the order of the archangels deviated, together with the division that was under his authority. He thought up the impossible idea, that he might place his throne higher than the clouds which are above the earth, and that he might become equal to my power.

And I hurled him out from the height, together with his angels. And he was flying around in the air, ceaselessly above the Bottomless.

2 Enoch [Longer recension, ms. J] (tr. F. Andersen): https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/slavonicenoch.html 

[3] See Garber, Marjorie, Shakespeare After All, Anchor Books, New York, 2004, page 482.

Also see “Blasphemous Claudius and his Drinking Game (Part 18, Claudius series) - May 19, 2025: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/05/blasphemous-claudius-and-his-drinking.html. 

Also see “Blasphemous Claudius revisited (Part 19, Claudius series) - May 27, 2025: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/05/blasphemous-claudius-revisited-part-19.html 

IMAGES:
Upper Left: William de Brailes (–1260), The Fall of the Rebel Angels (Apocryphal), circa 1250. “...In the center of heaven, God, cross-nimbed, with his hands in his lap, sits on a throne within a mandorla. Ranks of angels surround him in circular compartments, looking this way and that. The lowest rank of angels, to the left and right of God, is empty. The Rebel Angels are seen in the compartment below, falling headlong out of heaven and into a brown hellmouth. The jaws of the beast-headed hellmouth, with their crenellated teeth, engulf the fallen angels. As they fall, the angels become demons. Their flesh turns from white to dark brown, and their human faces become bestial, with long ears, great bulging eyes, and large grimacing jaws….”

(The “hellmouth” was a feature on stage in medieval and early modern drama.)
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, U.S. Public domain via Wikimedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/William_de_Brailes_-_The_Fall_of_the_Rebel_Angels_%28Apocryphal%29_-_Walters_W10624R_-_Full_Page.jpg

Upper right: Herri met de Bles (circa 1510–after 1555). The Fall of Lucifer (16th century). Royal Museums Greenwich. Public domain via wikimedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Herri_met_de_Bles_%28c.1510-after_1550%29_-_The_Fall_of_Lucifer_-_BHC0706_-_Royal_Museums_Greenwich.jpg

Bottom: Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569). The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1562. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Fall_of_the_Rebel_Angels_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg#/media/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Fall_of_the_Rebel_Angels_-_Google_Art_Project.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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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I usually post every week.