Did James VI of Scotland write Ur-Hamlet?

[Ray Eston Smith]

Summary:

The Stewart line of kings began with a baby born from the corpse of a king's daughter, Margaret, who had been confined to a nunnery. The father of her baby was the High Steward.
"breed maggots"..."good kissing carrion"..."as your daughter may conceive"..."the womb of earth"..."get thee to a nunnery"
"It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.

James I through IV all died violent deaths.
"And in the cup an union shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings"
- the poisoned cup

The first husband of Hamlet's mother died from a poisoned ear.
The first husband of James' mother died from an infected ear (rumored to be poisoned).

Hamlet's father was murdered in his orchard.
James VI's father was murdered in his orchard.

Hamlet's mother married his father's murderer.
James' mother married his father's murderer.

Hamlet's father's ghost cried for revenge.
A painting of James' father in his childhood home cried for revenge.

Hamlet's stepfather, the King of Denmark, died from drinking poison.
James' father-in-law, the King of Denmark, died from drink (alcoholism).

James' mother was doomed and James was endangered by a plot involving messages in bungholes.
"stopping a bung-hole"

Details:

On the second of March in the year 1316, the very pregnant 19-year-old Lady Marjorie fell off her horse and broke her neck. The baby that was ripped from her dead womb was the son of Walter Stewart, the 6th High Steward of Scotland. Lady Marjorie was the daughter of King Robert I of Scotland. That baby would grow up to be King Robert II of Scotland. Thus began the line of Scottish Stewart kings. And thus began the deadly curse on the Stewart line, a curse that would not end until King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England.

"It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter."
Who would dare risk offending the soon-to-be Stewart King of England with such a line? Who else but the Stewart King himself? The motif of a cursed birth from a daughter's dead womb is strongly reflected in Hamlet.

Hamlet
For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion - Have you a daughter?
Lord Polonius
I have, my lord.
Hamlet
Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing,
but not as your daughter may conceive.

When Lady Marjorie was 11 years old she had been captured by the English. Edward II of England had her confined to a nunnery for about 7 years. When she was 17, Scotland won the Battle of Bannockburn and she was returned to Scotland where she was given in marriage to Walter Stewart as a reward for his valor in the battle. Two years later she died, then gave birth, posthumously, to the first of the Stewart line of Scottish kings.

Hamlet
Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?

Lord Polonius
Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
Hamlet
Into my grave.
Lord Polonius
Indeed, that is out o' the air.
Aside: How pregnant sometimes his replies are!

Horatio (to the ghost)
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

A dead horsewoman bequeathed the Scottish throne to the Stewart line. That inheritance doomed four successive Stewart kings named James to a series of violent deaths, mostly in battle with English kings. Similarly in the play, a horseman named Death ("LeMord") praised Laertes' skill as a swordsman, which led to his mutually fatal duel with Hamlet.

The first Stewart King, Robert II, died of old age. The second Stewart King, Robert III, died of a “broken heart” after his son (the future James I) was kidnapped by pirates who turned him over to Henry IV of England. The English kept James for 18 years, but they treated him well, educating him and finally sending him home with an English bride. Hamlet, speaking of the pirates who had captured him: "They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy."

Claudius, as he prepared to poison Hamlet’s drink: The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And in the cup an union shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings
In Denmark's crown have worn.

But James VI did not want to join his four forefathers’ (and namesakes’) fatal union.

James I was assassinated by rebellious Scottish cousins.

James II was killed by his own cannon.
After Claudius (cloud-ius) ordered a cannon salute (“the great cannon to the clouds shall tell”), Hamlet wished that Claudius would literally, as well as figuratively aim his cannon at himself (cloud-ius): “O, that...the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon [his cannon] 'gainst self-slaughter!” In the end, Claudius slaughtered himself with poison “temper’d by himself” to the accompaniment of cannon fire (“Let all the battlements their ordnance fire: The king shall drink”).

James III was killed in battle against his rebellious son.

James IV was killed in battle against England.

James V died of natural causes (or of a “broken heart’).

Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded by order of her cousin Elizabeth I. On his deathbed, James V said of his sole heir, his infant daughter Mary, “It came wi’ a lass and it shall go wi’ a lass.” He was referring to the Stewart line of kings which had begun with Margaret’s posthumous delivery of Robert II and which James V believed would end with his daughter Mary. But he was wrong. Mary Queen of Scots married a Stewart cousin and gave birth to James Stewart who would become James VI of Scotland and I of England. All subsequent monarchs of England have been descendants of James VI and I, but none of them (except Charles I) died violently. So the dynasty didn’t end with Mary, but the Scottish curse did.

Mary’s first husband was Francis II, King of France. He died from an infected ear. This was reflected both in Hamlet and in The Mousetrap. The ghost of Hamlet’s father described how he was murdered with poison poured into his ear:

"Sleeping within my orchard, My custom always of the afternoon, With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment"

Hamlet, describing “The Mousetrap”:
..comes in a fellow... and pours poison in the King's ears

Hamlet described his Uncle Claudius to his mother:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother.

History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland: [referring to the death of Francis II] “He died of an abscess in the ear, and not by poison, the rumours of which have been proved by De Thou and other historians to be without foundation.”

" He was suddenly striken with an aposthume in that deaf car that never would hear the truth. of God." - John Knox

Hamlet Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will not debate the question of this straw: This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland: [quoting a limerick allegedly popular in France right after Francis II died]

“Leist Francis, that unhappy child,
His father’s footsteps following plane, To Christ crying, deaf ears did yield, Ane rotten ear then was his bane”

Hamlet, speaking of his father’s ghost:
It waves me forth again: I'll follow it.

Hamlet’s father’s ghost to Hamlet:
But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love-- ... Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused"

Mary’s 2nd husband, James’ father, was found dead in the orchard after an explosion destroyed his house.

After his father was murdered and his mother exiled, James was adopted by his father’s parents. In their house was a large painting showing Darnley’s murder, with the inscription to “shut not out of his memory the recent atrocious murder of the King his father, until God should avenge it through him.”

Ghost
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder...Hamlet, remember me.

James VI grew up to love literature, wordplay, and the theater. He had a predilection for comparing himself to literary figures. When he crossed the North Sea to meet his Danish bride, James compared himself to Leander swimming the Hellespont to be with Hero (which might have been Marlowe’s inspiration for beginning his translation of Hero and Leander.)

James could not have failed to be impressed by the similarities between himself and Hamlet. Hamlet’s stepfather, King Claudius of Denmark, who drained his draughts of Rhenish down as ordnance was shot off, in the end died from (poisoned) drink. James’ father-in-law, King Frederick II of Denmark, was said to have died from excessive drinking. (Danish nobles Rosencrantz and Guildenstern marched at the head of Frederick’s funeral procession.) During his honeymoon at Elsinore, James had been much impressed with the custom of firing ordnance at every occasion.

Hamlet:
“Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats will not debate the question of this straw...”

Martin Luther: “St. James Epistle is really an epistle of straw.”

As Protestants and Catholics vied for his allegiance, James may have felt like a straw in the wind.

James’ mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was beheaded after she had been caught communicating with conspirators with notes hidden in the bungholes of barrels which were routinely carried in and out of the castle where she was imprisoned.

Hamlet

To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole? ............... Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!

The north wind was a motif in Hamlet symbolizing Hamlet’s madness brought on by the influence of his vengeful father (who was associated with “yond same star that's westward from the pole”). “I am but mad north-north-west.” For James, any attempt to revenge his mother’s death would be suicidal madness.

In his secret correspondence with Sir Robert Cecil in 1601, preparing for his succession after Elizabeth’s eventual death, the codeword for James was "30"

Player King
Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground, And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen About the world have times twelve thirties been, Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands Unite commutual in most sacred bands

Gravedigger
"I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years"

[Ray Eston Smith]

also see:
Hamlet and the Scottish Succession (1921) by Lillian Winstanley
http://www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook...nley/index.htm
Miss Winstanley reached related conclusions based on different
evidence.

[Beewulf]

There's a lot of information in your post, Ray, to digest. I'll reply briefly and maybe add something later.

As I understand it, you are suggesting that James VI wrote a play about Hamlet and that this text served as the inspiration for Shakespeare's Hamlet. In order to defend your assertion, you cite what appear to be allusions to the House of Stuart and James IV in Shakespeare's play. In a second post, you refer to Lilian Winstanley's writings on Hamlet, and seem to suggest that while you agree with Winstanley's view that Hamlet is full of allusions concerning Stewart succession, you believe this is evidence that James VI wrote an Ur-Hamlet.

Goodness.

In the early 1920s, Winstanley published Hamlet and the Scottish Sucession in which she argued that Shakespeare's Hamlet is a political allegory about James VI and the Essex conspiracy. To support her argument, she sought to identify allusions in the play that connect dramatic characters to the historical figures they supposedly represented.

Winstanely was a lecturer in English language and literature at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth from 1899-1940, and had a long list of publications to her credit. I cannot speak to all her writing, but in the case of Hamlet, the allusions which you and Winstanley depend on to prove your argument are too speculative to count as evidence.

I know that you will likely dismiss my criticism and continue to take pleasure in finding hidden meanings in Hamlet, --and that's fine. But if you are curious about reviewing some of the logical fallacies inherent in your interpretative approach, you might start with Richard Levin's 1995 essay, "Negative Evidence" in the journal Studies in Philology, available through JSTOR. After examining Winstanely's assertions about Hamlet, and demonstrating the epistomological problems of trying to prove something is true when one refuses to acknowledge negative or contrary evidence, Levin observes that Winstanley's method "can prove anything and so proves nothing."

While your enthusiasm for Hamlet is remarkable, your thesis and supporting material to show that James VI wrote an ur-Hamlet is unconvincing. The sections of the play you cite could, like the writings of Nostradamus, be applied any number of historical figures or events. Just as it is impossible to prove your assertions false, it is equally impossible to prove them true.

[Ray Eston Smith]

The sections of the play you cite could, like the writings of Nostradamus, be applied any number of historical figures or events.

Just as your criticisms of my interpretations could be applied to any interpretation of anything. At least my interpretations are applied to specific quotes from the play. Something which your objections lack.

- Ray

[jocky]

This is a very interesting proposition which is not without merit. You back up your theory with historical facts as well as a good grounding on the play. It is certainly not an unbelievable idea which should be dismissed in an offhanded fashion. The timelines are correct and James was of a highly literate disposition i.e. political writer, pamphleteer etc. Having studied James and Hamlet, I have came to a different conclusion where I think the character Polonius is based on King james. Shakespeare would have obviously made it his business to have read James' work. While studying Basilikon Doron I was struck forcibly by the similarity between the King's advice to his son Henry and Polonius' preachings to Laertes. Is Shakespeare channeling the characteristics of James i.e. the pedantic ramblings of a learned old man, on to the politically inept Polonius? Enjoyed your thesis very much.

[Ray Eston Smith]

... While studying Basilikon Doron I was struck forcibly by the similarity between the King's advice to his son Henry and Polonius' preachings to Laertes. Is Shakespeare channeling the characteristics of James i.e. the pedantic ramblings of a learned old man, on to the politically inept Polonius? ...

Thanks, Jocky. I haven't read Basilikon Doron and wasn't aware of the similarity. But some of Polonius' advice was extremely wise: "to thine ownself be true." I believe that was the main theme of the play.

Another theme of the play seems to me to be Hamlet's struggle to decide whether "TO BE OR NOT TO BE" . . . . "so like the king THAT was and IS THE QUESTION of these wars." Based on your knowledge of James, do you think he too struggled with the conflict between his humanist education and his warlike heritage?

[jocky]

Ray, that is an extremely difficult question to answer with any degree of certainty. Let's begin with Hamlet. This was a new take on tragedy, previous tragedians, like Middleton, portrayed their main characters as being overwhelmed by external obstacles. Shakespeare, on the other hand, has Hamlet paralysed by internal obstacles i.e. his own psychology. I tend to think on the play as the first psychiatric case study. So you are correct in your assertion that the main theme of the play is To Be Or Not To be. As to your enquiry about James, I have to put on my historians hat and say that I cant answer that with any great conviction. Let me try and answer it this way, James who had a thoroughly humanist education, under the tutelage of James Buchanan , was not a particularly violent man. Henry V111, however, who was also well schooled in the humanities, was a complete brute. Education is not always the stamp of a man's character. I know that this is not a comprehensive or satisfactory reply. James, like the man in Black, will always be an enigmatic figure. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, '' I would never have to cross the room to meet Hamlet, he is always right here with me ''