Yorick, the Gravedigger, Emmaus, and St. George (Emmaus Postlude, Part 8)
The name Yorick [1] may come from the same root as St. George [2], patron saint of England since 1348 : from the Greek “Georgios”: from ge (γῆ) - 'earth, soil' - and ergon (ἔργον), 'work' [3]. Yorick, as “earth worker.” The gravedigger in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is called “Goodman Delver” by his friend (5.1.14). - So the gravedigger and Yorick echo one another in more ways than foolery… This relates also to my series on the Emmaus echo in 5.1, the graveyard scene: the story of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus [4] was a gospel read in church on the first Monday after Easter every year of Shakespeare’s life [5]. In that gospel, two disciples on the road are mourning the death of Jesus. They meet a stranger (somehow a real or figurative Jesus, unrecognized [6]) who shows them compassion, listens, scolds them for their flawed thinking, and gives them hope, explaining the scriptures to them. These are all things Jesus had done for them. The disciple...