Old King, New King, Eclipsed Sons, and Abandoned Altars in "Hamlet"
In "Hamlet", Shakespeare's wordplay creates patterns of doubling, splitting, loss, and replacement that mimic the situations of not only the dramatic characters, but also the changing English church of the Reformation period. Puns provide verbal cues to remind the audience of the curt...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
2004
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| In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 2004, Volume: 35, Issue: 2, Pages: 475-491 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | In "Hamlet", Shakespeare's wordplay creates patterns of doubling, splitting, loss, and replacement that mimic the situations of not only the dramatic characters, but also the changing English church of the Reformation period. Puns provide verbal cues to remind the audience of the curtailing of old Roman rites, especially communion, burial practices, sanctuary, and prayer. They also draw attention to replacements of material furnishings of the church by the numerous allusions to tables, the arras, and the royal bed, all of which serve as reminders of the replacement of altars by reformers. Old religious practices have been secularized and adapted for the stage, but the wordplay attests to an ambivalence about the shifts in rites and to anxiety about iconoclastic change. |
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| ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/20476945 |