The Parable of Hamlet
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THE NECESSARY QUESTION OF THE PLAY: THE CONTRIBUTION OF SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET TO BALTHASAR’S DRAMATIC CATEGORIES by SØREN FILIPSKI M.A. Franciscan University of Steubenville B.A. Thomas Aquinas College A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Systematic Theology, Ave Maria University, May 18, 2018 Advisor DR. MICHAEL WALDSTEIN Dissertation Board DR. MICHAEL WALDSTEIN DR. MICHAEL DAUPHINAIS DR. T. ADAM VAN WART © Søren Filipski, 2018 Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................. 2 Prologue .................................................................................................................................. 1 I: Balthasar, Hegel, and the Problem of Hamlet .................................................................... 4 A Note on Textual Criticism ............................................................................................ 20 II: Shakespeare and Revenge ............................................................................................... 23 III: Ghost Writers ................................................................................................................. 40 John Dover Wilson ........................................................................................................... 42 Lily Bess Campbell .......................................................................................................... 47 I.J. Semper ........................................................................................................................ 51 Roy W. Battenhouse ......................................................................................................... 52 Sister Miriam Joseph ........................................................................................................ 55 Eleanor Prosser ................................................................................................................. 60 Arthur McGee ................................................................................................................... 67 The School of Ambiguity ................................................................................................. 75 IV: He That Plays the King .................................................................................................. 78 V: Fortune’s Fingers ........................................................................................................... 112 Love (168-188) ............................................................................................................... 118 Time (188-217) ............................................................................................................... 121 Fortune (219-238) ........................................................................................................... 123 Place (238-420) .............................................................................................................. 128 VI: A Silence in the Heavens ............................................................................................. 135 The Hecuba Soliloquy .................................................................................................... 140 To Be or Not to Be ......................................................................................................... 151 VII: The Judge of Israel ...................................................................................................... 170 VIII: To Define True Madness ........................................................................................... 183 Aesthetic Madness .......................................................................................................... 186 Dramatic Madness .......................................................................................................... 188 True Madness ................................................................................................................. 200 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 203 Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 215 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 217 Make us to know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart. -Ps. 90:12 1 Prologue It is a warm afternoon in 1601. A mass of spectators crams its way inside of London’s Globe Theatre for the first performance of a new play called The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The house fills quickly, and the busy audience is expectant. They have seen great plays in this theater before, and though they do not all know the author’s name, they have admired his work for years. Few members of this audience have arrived with any greater purpose than to get a good afternoon’s entertainment. None of them knows he is about to see a “great” play, let alone the greatest ever written. No one present has studied Hamlet in school, heard its speeches quoted, or been instructed in any theory of its interpretation. They enter the theater with nothing but themselves, with their own ideas, their own beliefs, their own prejudices, their own instincts. It is from this perspective only that they will judge the play they are to see. From the start, the play is excellent. The action is dynamic, the characters lifelike, the poetry sweeping, and every joke is funny. The conniving old man is particularly good, and Mr. Burbage’s lead performance is full of dash and daring. This play is good fare for the peasants, but it might have been written for a monarch. Then, in the midst of the entertainment, comes a sobering scene. A disconsolate man stands alone on the stage. He is a king; he is also a murderer, now struck by grief for his crime. Confounded by guilt, the king weighs the power of repentance. He asks himself: What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? (Ham F1 3.3.43-46)1 1 All quotations of Hamlet marked F1 (First Folio) or Q1 (First Quarto) are to Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 and 1623, ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor (London: Arden Shakespeare, 2006). Quotations 2 He knows that there is rain enough, for his God is a forgiving God, who “wil that all men shalbe saued, & and come vnto knowledge of the trueth” (1 Tim 2:4).2 Yet though the king knows God’s arms are open to him, he cannot perform the necessary penance because I am still possess’d Of those effects for which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition and my queen. (3.3.53-55) Now the king falls to his knees, calls the angels to his aid, and seems to pray. The suspense of the moment stretches tightly through the theater, and the audience is caught in a hush. Will the king repent? Will God forgive him? As the crowd ponders these questions, another figure appears onstage. He is strangely clothed, disheveled, and wild. He moves stealthily towards the king, draws his sword, and whispers, “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying” (73-74)! A thrill of fear charges through the crowd. One nobleman in the audience imagines that the prince steps quickly forward and thrusts his sword through the king’s back ribs, into the area nearest his heart. The king kicks out his legs and falls lifeless to the floor. The idea is at once grotesque; the nobleman grips the sides of his chair, not wanting to look, but unable to turn his eyes from the stage. But William Shakespeare (for that is the name of the author) is more tasteful than to subject his audience to such a savage spectacle—He gives them a more savage spectacle instead: the prince stops, raises his sword, walks upstage, and exits. After a manner, this is a desirable action, because it spares the life of the pitiful king. But in its larger marked Q2 (Second Quarto) are to Hamlet, ed. Thompson and Taylor (2006). All other citations to Shakespeare are to the respective 2nd Arden editions of the various plays and sonnets. 2 Unless otherwise noted, all English quotations of the Bible are to the Geneva Bible of 1560, which is the most frequently quoted version in Shakespeare’s plays. 3 meaning, it is more disconcerting than if Hamlet had killed him. For the prince has not paused out of mercy, out of sorrow, or even out of pity for his mother. The motive for his delay is his hatred, and the formal object of his choice is an evil per se: When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed, Or at gaming, swearing, or about some act That hath no relish of salvation in’t. Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heav’n, And that his soul may be as damn’d and black As hell whereto its goes. (89-95) This is not the delay of an irresolute man, but of a man resolved upon evil. This happens in a play by William Shakespeare, whose works abound with the praises of forgiveness and mercy. 4 I: Balthasar, Hegel, and the Problem of Hamlet “What constitutes a Christian drama?” is a theological question requiring a theological answer. If an answer is given solely from the sociology of Christianity and other external factors, the answer will be only nominal. A true and substantive answer must turn to revelation, even when it makes material