Historical Criticism & Michael MacDonald's essay, "Ophelia's Maimèd Rites"
This past week, one generous reader on a FaceBook Shakespeare-related forum recommended a helpful essay by Michael MacDonald called "Ophelia's Maimèd Rites," published in Shakespeare Quarterly Vol. 37, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 309-317 (9 pages). The recommendation was in response to my blog post from last week, "Coroner's Suicide Inquest as 'Crowner's Quest' in Hamlet" which quoted David Bevington's claim that coroner's inquests were pressured by the crown to rule questionable deaths as suicides, in which case the crown often took possession of the deceased's property, since suicide was considered sinful by the church and a crime by the state. It may also have tempted the crown to the sin or vice of greed. [ Painting by Benjamin West, 1789, Boydell Shakespeare Gallery ] MacDonald doesn't explicitly claim any support for a position like Bevington's regarding pressure on coroner's inquests; in fact, he takes a more ne...