Notes on the Religious Element in Hamlet

Abstract

ALTHOUGH Shakespeare’s Hamlet is now widely acknowledged to be pervaded by references and allusions to matters of religious doctrine and controversy, discussion on their overall import continues. The following notes seek to identify or clarify several such references and allusions. They generally do not replicate information readily available in the established literature, but do draw attention to some neglected or controversial previous commentary. The possibility that the apparition is offended at being invoked by heaven, as suggested by Prosser, has been dismissed or ignored.2 Of potential interest here is that in Q1 this invocation is repeated as the apparition is stalking away from the stage: ‘Stay, speak, speak, by heaven I charge thee, speak’ (i.40, emphasis mine). This could be due to a number of reasons—for one thing, the addition of three syllables renders the line metrical—but the point may well be to emphasize the precise cause of the offence. If so, this would parallel the apparition’s other two exits in Act I, both occurring in response to specifically religious promptings: the crowing of the cock—the symbol of Christ, as various analogues demonstrate, and as Horatio’s and Marcellus’ explanations all but explicitly indicate (I.i.146–164)—and the approach of morning prayer or ‘matin’ (I.v.89). As further discussed in note VIII below, this would not be the only place where Q1 is more explicit on religious matters than Q2 and F.