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Friday, September 29, 2023

Shakespeare: To See or not to See

William Shakespeare
Public Domain
The difficulty of writing Hamlet was nothing compared to the difficulty of being Catholic in Elizabethan England.  Therefore, people are still trying to figure out whether or not Shakespeare was actually Catholic.

Although Shakespeare's parents were practicing Roman Catholics during the reign of Queen Mary I (who espoused Catholicism), they may not have been during the reign of her successor, Elizabeth I.  That's because Elizabeth I's anti-Catholicism was literally quite deadly.

Elizabeth's spies had already tortured, killed, drawn and quartered Robert Southwell, a Jesuit priest and poet whom Shakespeare had admired.  If Shakespeare were a practicing Catholic, these events could have surely encouraged him to keep his religion a closely-guarded secret.

Elizabeth ordered all citizens to attend Church of England (Anglican) Protestant services - keeping track of those who did, and closer track of those who didn't.  The latter were identified as recusants.  Shakespeare's father was identified as such, as was Shakespeare's daughter.  Plus, there is no record of Shakespeare himself ever having registered as a member of the Anglican Church.

In 1613 Shakespeare purchased Blackfriars Gatehouse.  Its tunnels were said to have been a hiding place for London's Catholics.  There was also talk that he had befriended Edmund Campion (a Counter-Reformation leader), and that his father's will included a copy of Campion's Catholic materials.  An Anglican minister had even written literary notes affirming that Shakespeare had "dyed a Papyst" (one loyal to the Pope).

Some of Shakespeare's memorable characters were Catholic, such as Friar Laurence (Romeo and Juliet), Friar Francis (Much Ado About Nothing), Hamlet's purgatorial ghost (?), Thomas More and others.  The question remains: Was Shakespeare also?

Resources

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/04/25/april-25-2008-was-shakespeare-catholic/5519/#:~:text=His%20works%20suggest%20that%20he,by%20the%20Church%20of%20England.

https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/hamlet-ghost-catholic-protestant/

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