Filling in the Holes in the Biography of William Shakespeare

She goes on to give some more examples. They are too many to repeat here but the names of some of the plays she mentions are; Titus Andronicus, The Rape of Lucrece, Taming of the Shrew The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Nights Dream, and, of course, Hamlet.  She even discusses some of the Sonnets.  Hamlet is one of the best plays that demonstrate Catholic affiliations in subtle ways.

"By attempting to reform the lusty widow and prodigal mother, by presenting the audience with a good woman gone wrong…then showing her the error of remarriage and aligning her with her son, Q1 depicts a queen well suited to audiences dedicated to the old religion and its values, one who could be considered a ‘Catholic’ Gertred." 18

It is hard to say why Shakespeare may have changed the apparently Catholic Gertrude in the later versions but, it is easy for the sharp eye to see Catholic belief creeping into other parts of the play.

The most obvious part of the play, as we know it today, where we can see a Catholic influence is when the Ghost of King Hamlet speaks with Prince Hamlet.  The Ghost speaks of a place that the Catholics would call Purgatory.  Asquith writes in her book, about Hamlets interaction with the Ghost,

"When his father’s ghost appears to him from Purgatory, the terrible region where, according to Catholicism, souls destined for Heaven expiated their sins through suffering, Hamlet instinctively replies in kind, calling on angels, banned prayers for the dead, and St. Patrick, the patron of souls in Purgatory. All this was out of bounds to a student from Wittenberg [Protestants], for the doctrine of Purgatory was denied by reformers." 19

The very fact that the Ghost comes from Purgatory is invocative of a Catholic theme.    This is one of the boldest moves that the Bard ever made in regards to revealing his, as Asquith would call it, “coded politics.”

Literary critic Mark Matheson, who ultimately believes that the Bard was a Protestant, even admires this gamble that Shakespeare took, “Shakespeare shows a certain daring in establishing the context of the Ghost so plainly.”20  Scholar Gerard Kilroy in his article, “Requiem for a Prince,” discusses the impact of the interaction between the Ghost and the young prince.  He argues that the impact of the meeting between the Ghost from a Catholic Purgatory and the Prince from a Protestant University, Wittenberg, is highly significant because young Hamlet has been trained to not believe in Purgatory by his Protestant teachers. 

When viewed this way the tension of this scene is hugely increased.  Hamlet’s education, everything that he believes, is being undermined by the presence of the Ghost from Purgatory.  Maybe the Catholics are right; that there is a Purgatory because this Ghost, Hamlet’s father, is telling Hamlet that it does.21  The tension is between what as a good educated Protestant Hamlet should believe and what the old sprit of the kingdom that is telling him.  This translates directly to the situation that  Shakespeare finds himself in during the time of divided loyalties in England.

Kilroy also raises an interesting point about the graveyard scene in Hamlet when the prince picks up and speaks with the skull of Yorick.  He argues that, “YORICK is an anagram of the Greek word KURIOS, used through the New Testament for Christ,” he adds that the line “I knew him, Horatio” spoken by Hamlet could be viewed in relation to the denial of Christ by Peter and that this is all in line with the testament of John Shakespeare.22  This idea ties everything back to religion and relates the religious play on words and ideas that the Bard was capable of.

One final point that I will make here about Hamlet and the Catholic subtexts, although there are a number of other ones that I could make, is that of a real life source and inspiration for the Hamlet character.    Asquith argues that Shakespeare modeled Hamlet, in part, on a famous knight and author named Sir Phillip Sidney.  Asquith describes Sidney as a man “who for many at home and abroad epitomized the very best of Elizabethan England.”23  Although, Sidney had died before Shakespeare had a chance to meet him, he had a profound influence on the Bard through legends and stories.

The issue with Sidney, Asquith argues, is that he may have been a ‘closet Catholic’ who, in his later years was not trusted by the crown and was not allowed to leave the country unsupervised.  Also, Sidney’s father was even listed with the Catholic Spanish crown “as a potential ally… [He was] ‘held to be Catholic.’”24  To some, this may seem far fetched because Sidney is considered a fierce Protestant but, the idea is that he made fierce remarks for Protestantism so that he would not be suspected of anything of being anything other than Protestant.