Although there’s mounting evidence that William Shakespeare was a believing Catholic, or at least raised that way, no one’s dared to argue that his plays actually contain a layer of dissident Catholic meaning—until Clare Asquith. We spoke with her recently about her revolutionary new book, ‘Shadowplay,’ and the reaction to it here and in England.
I am surprised that Ms. Asquith has allowed to get by her the most glaring bit of Catholic doctrine in, of all places, Hamlet. Where, first, is the young prince studying? Wittenberg: the capital at the time of the Protestant Reformation, the town where Luther committed has first act of public defiance at the Roman Church. Wittenberg: a place of real enlightenment or an escape zone from the realities awaiting Hamlet when his father dies and he is called home.
What is Hamlet's father but The Ghost...who is where but in Purgatory? Now, I do not know my Anglican Church history well enough to tell whether Purgatory at that stage was still part of the official theology, but it's never ceased to be so for Rome.
Was Hamlet, then, thrust back either into an ancient and dying culture or into the real one of his family and upbringing, the world of a truth forgotten?
I don't know what difference it will make to readers and viewers of the plays but it will surely drive partisan scholars into fits for generations to come.
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39. Not observing the imperfections of others, preserving silence and a continual communion with God will eradicate great imperfections from the soul and make it the possessor of great virtues. ~St. John of the Cross, Maxims on Love (The Minor Works)
This interview merely summarizes Mrs. Asquith's argument. Believe me, in her book, she hasn't missed these facts, nor any other possible argument (reasonable or unreasonable) that Shakespeare hid secret Catholic codes in his work. (The point about Purgatory goes back at least as far as J. Dover Wilson's "What Happens in Hamlet" [1935].)
To see what Shakespeareans think, go to Shaksper.net and search on "Shadowplay."
In teaching Shakespeare's plays at the secondary level, I was always amazed that many of my students inquired after the 'Catholic' imagery and terminology of his language.
The most often asked questions were in Romeo and Juliet when the protagonists meet and speak to one another via the sonnet form. A better understanding of Christian and pagan tropes used by Shakespeare always lead to better essay answers!
November 23, 2005 5:02 PM
