King Hamlet’s Two Successors

King Hamlet’s Two Successors Cherrell Guilfoyle This paper is an examination of the part played by Claudius in Hamlet as distinct from his character or the character of his crime. His part is central to the play, but structurally it is linked to that of his successor Fortinbras which appears on the peri­ phery of the play—indirectly in Act I, and, apart from a brisk walk across the stage in Act IV, directly only in the last forty lines of the final scene. “The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke” could have been entitled “The Tragicall Historie of the reign of Claudius, King of Denmarke,” since “the play opens on the eve of the coronation and marriage of Claudius”! and ends with his death. In fact, it spans a reign more precisely than do the history plays which are specifically concerned with the reigns of kings of England. If the question in these plays is often “Who is England?”2 the question in Hamlet might well be “Who is Denmark?” for, as far as the text is concerned, Denmark is ruled by an unnamed king. In the versions of the story given by Saxo and Belleforest, the king is Feng or Fengon; in Der Bestrafte Brudermord he is Erico. It is possible that in an early version of Hamlet the king was named, and the name later excised by Shakespeare; similarly the word “ghost” may have been deleted from Act I.iv, since Hamlet plays on the word when there has been no previous use of it.3 In some speeches the confusion of he/his/ him (e.g. III.iii.80-86; V.ii.370-72) lends credence to this theory, but the obscure use of pronouns was common in the work of Spenser and other renaissance writers, so the case can­ not be proved. The other unnamed characters in the text of Hamlet are the players, clowns, ambassadors, gentlemen, cap­ tain, and priest; all other names are cited, including, in the opening lines, the Italian names of the two soldiers who intro­ duce the play. Coghill wrote that “Shakespeare well knew that 120 Cherrell Guilfoyle 121 the repetition of a name can have special effect on a stage”;4 the elimination of a name can also have an effect. According to James Calderwood, all Shakespeare’s other kings are named in the texts, and Calderwood adds: “In titling [Claudius] always ‘the King,’ Shakespeare seems to imply a certain erasure of the individual by his office.”5 Shakespeare may not imply this, but certainly seems to imply something by the persistent anonymity of Hamlet’s uncle. As for the name “Claudius,” in the Q2 heading of the king’s first speech, Bullough finds it obvious that the king was named after the Roman emperor, who incestuously married his brother’s widow Agrippina.6 Agrippina was subsequently killed by her son Nero, an incident to which Hamlet refers (III.ii.396-99)- In some popular literature “Claudius” was used as the name of the Roman emperor at the time of the crucifixion,7 and thus epito­ mized the wicked ruler and enemy of Christ. If Hamlet is to be believed, his uncle is a villain—he calls him villain eight times, and the word is not used lightly.8 The ghost, in what may be deliberate avoidance of his brother’s name, refers to the king as serpent, beast, a wretch. At first, like the fruit on the tree in Eden, Claudius seems good—or at the least, not wholly bad. Indeed, like Milton’s Satan, he deceives more than the characters who surround him, since certain critics, notably Wilson Knight and Bernard Spivack, have to some extent taken his part and have hence chosen to ignore Hamlet’s remark (in another context) that “the devil hath power/ T’assume a pleasing shape” (II.ii.603-04). For them, the king is a man quite good at heart, who happens to have done something wrong. There is little in the play to sup­ port this romantic view. Gunfire, which has satanic connotations, is often associated with Claudius. The play opens on a “platform,” or gunsite; in the...