CANNON FIRE, DRINKING GAMES, AND VIOLATING THE SABBATH: Hamlet & the Fourth Commandment (series)

Among the Ten Commandments posted prominently at the front of every church in Shakespeare’s England, the Fourth Commandment was to “KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY."

There is one mention of the sabbath in Hamlet: 

MARCELLUS: Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch

So nightly toils the subject of the land,

And why such daily cast of brazen cannon

And foreign mart for implements of war,

Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week.

What might be toward that this sweaty haste

Doth make the night joint laborer with the day?

Normally days were for work, while nights and the Sabbath were for rest; but preparations for war with Norway, stemming from an old feud based on pride, have not only affected the monarchy and soldiers, but have disrupted the entire social fabric. While Claudius orders cannons to be fired as he plays his drinking game, normal boundaries for work, rest, and worship have been violated. 

It was commonplace for exceptions to be made for observation of the Sabbath during war, yet even commoners knew that the sins of monarchs could contribute to causes for war. In 3.3, Rosencrantz describes a king as “That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests / The lives of many.” Punning on (common-) weal, the monarch is like a wheel,

Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,

To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things

Are mortised and adjoined, which, when it falls,

Each small annexment, petty consequence,

Attends the boist’rous ruin.

(3.3.12-24)

In the Hebrew scriptures, God sent prophets to condemn societies and their leaders, not lowly individuals. So in Hamlet, violating the Sabbath is not a single sin committed by one, but many sins whose blame falls on prideful monarchs: one who killed Old Fortinbras, and another, Claudius, who killed his brother to usurp his throne.

Due to their monarchs’ sins, subjects are deprived of worship and of needed rest.

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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

IMAGES:

TOP left: Ribauldequin (or organ gun), 15th century, studies from Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Public domain via Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribauldequin#/media/File:Ribauldequins_-_Leonardo_da_Vinci_studies.jpg

TOP middle: An artillery park, 15th century drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_Artillery_Park.jpg

TOP right: Mechanism for Repulsing Scaling Ladders. 15th century drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, 565. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Ambrosiana-Codice-Atlantico-Codex-Atlanticus-f-139-recto.jpg 

BOTTOM: Title: Christ defends the plucking of the ears of grain on the Sabbath (August), circa 1580-1590. Marten van Valckenborch (1535–1612). Kunsthistorisches Museum. Public domain via Wikimedia. [Note that in the gospel passage painted here, Jesus was acting as an itinerant preacher, and he and his disciples were hungry; authorities claimed he violated the Sabbath rules for rest by picking extra grain. Jesus responds that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. But this in itself does not imply that Jesus would justify a prideful king preparing for an unjust war, and violating the Sabbath.]  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marten_van_Valckenborch_-_Christ_defends_the_plucking_of_the_ears_of_grain_on_the_Sabbath_(August).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.