Shakespeare In Love
Book III: All’s Well
Julius Caesar · As You Like It · Hamlet · Twelfth Night · Troilus and Cressida · Measure for Measure · Othello · All’s Well That Ends Well
Political intrigue, moral disorder and the decay of society, fractured authority and the perils of usurpation, and providence working through a troubled world.
Julius Caesar
…but that i loved rome more
Tragedy, ~1599, 1st Published as Folio
Let’s pretend. It’s 1599 and you are an English Catholic, it’s illegal to be Catholic. To remain in England is to run the constant risk of imprisonment, impoverishment, and if a priest, martyrdom. Your joy and brief comfort in these tyrannous times is going to the plays where a young Catholic playwright continues to preach the old religion through allegory.
While everyone else is entertained by the story, you recognize something more. Your common Catholic identity has formed your imagination and you see things others miss. The inherited symbols and traditions of your religion carries means for interpreting stories and scriptures that is different than others. For example, we see Christ and his holy Eucharist across the Old Testament while others don’t.
And at the time, rumors are swirling that the prolific playwright Shakespeare has been banned from writing any more English history plays. The people are saying Henry V was too good at reminding the English people of their Catholic history. They say the rulers are scared. They say the famous speech centered on Saint Crispian’s Day, a now banned holy feast day, was too much. That making the climax of the story centered on a speech about Catholic saints was too close for comfort for England’s tyrants. In these times, every profession of faith might lead to martyrdom.
And imagine now you are walking to the Globe theater excited to see Shakespeare’s next play, a political thriller, not set in England but Rome, a play about Julius Caesar, the great emperor. And you’re wondering if he will bow to the government censorship, tow the safe line, or if he’ll once again find a way to communicate Catholic wisdom to his fellow Catholics in his newest play.
As a Catholic, you saw that Shakespeare used the initials JC in Romeo & Juliet to highlight his Christ figure, Juliet Capulet. You appreciated his genius to disguise Christ in a lovestruck teenage girl. And so, you wonder, will he do it again? Is Julius Caesar a Christ figure? Is the mighty emperor going to prefigure somehow the King of Kings? Will there be a message hidden within the play for Catholics? A message told in ways that Catholics are trained to see deeper meaning in stories? A message told thru allegory.
And the answer is a resounding yes!
From the setup, from the first scene, Shakespeare communicates this is an overwhelmingly Catholic play. Two men are questioned by tribunes on a feast day and the puns begin. One a carpenter, the other a cobbler, a mender of soles. But the audience hears souls and a Catholic in times of tyranny recognizes how our priests disguise themselves to bring the sacraments to the faithful.
From the beginning a Catholic is encouraged to reflect on how different the journey of the soul is for Catholics and Protestants. Catholics, having more sacraments, are constantly confronted with the importance of healing for our soul. We have divine grace of healing not simply via the sacrament of baptism but throughout our lives. The divine sacraments are a part of our daily lives. We pray without ceasing in the liturgy for the healing of our souls. In every mass.
And so, the soul’s journey is an ever present adventure for a Catholic in a way that Protestants and other peoples don’t share, nor believe.
And this is just the first scene. For a Catholic, Shakespeare is unequivocally letting us know this is a Catholic play and that those with eyes to see and ears to hear must tune in with the Holy Spirit so that he can impart wisdom to our souls.
And the themes of this political thriller apply to the Church in 16th century England. So many examples, we’ll just highlight one. The conspiracy to get rid of Caesar is, according to Brutus - our King Henry 8 figure - “not because he loved Caesar less only Rome more.”
Brutus was Caesar’s friend, a close confidant. Likewise, King Henry the 8th was a defender of the Church, proclaimed so by the Pope in a title that English royals carry to this day. When Caesar responds with “Eh tu Brute? - then fall Caesar, fall” - one can here the lament of Christ. “And you to Henry, then fall church, fall.”
The Church in England painfully betrayed by its dear son and defender. And Henry’s justification isn’t that he didn’t love the church, he claims he did, only he claims he loves England more. And so, the defender of the faith becomes the agent of rupture of Christendom in England. The rest of the play chronicles how the conspirators justify their usurpation and attempt to sway the masses.
Or as the Catholic might lament, “then fall England, fall.”
Now of course, the purpose of these summaries are not to offer spoilers, but simply to highlight how thoroughly Catholic Shakespeare’s plays are, modeling our multi-millennia long tradition of interpreting sacred writings in the light of Christ. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is no different.
Now I suppose the books of the world would never sufficiently describe the Catholic depth to Shakespeare, but these are enough to highlight a pattern to his deeper meaning. These are enough to reveal Shakespeare’s deep love for both England and Christ’s holy Church, the Catholic Church.
As You Like It
Sweet are the uses of adversity
Comedy, ~1599, 1st published as Folio
As You Like It continues on the themes that matter to Catholics in Shakespeare’s England, the banishment of good people. In this play, a usurper displaces his brother from the throne (like Hamlet), and the true ruler banished into the forest of Arden. This causes great instability in the kingdom. Family relationships suffer, such as the example of the main protagonist Orlando who is neglected by his brother against his long gone Father’s will. Likewise, the usurper’s niece, the newly beloved of Orlando, is soon banished from court despite her close and dear relationship with his daughter, who sneaks away to “liberty not banishment” with her cousin. And in Shakespearean comedic fashion, they sneak away in disguise.
Catholic themes abound. A tyrant banishes noble characters, exactly what happened in Elizabethan England when the tyrant Queen made the Catholic religion illegal and banished priests. Banished characters took on disguises, exactly happened when Catholic priests like the Jesuits had to adopt disguises to ensure the Catholic faithful received the sacraments. It’s Shakespearean perfection that Rosalind, the heroine of the play, adopts the disguise of Ganymede, a handsome young man who helps others fall in love. In disguise, she is named Ganymede, who was a Trojan prince abducted by the gods to serve as Zeus’ cupbearer. Remember, Catholic priests in disguise where the cupbearers of Christ in England sent to bring God’s love and sacraments to his people.
And in a personal twist for Shakespeare, the forest that all these noble characters are forced to flee to due to the whims of a tyrant, the usurping ruler, is the Forest of Arden. Arden is not only the forest near Shakespeare’s boyhood home, but is also the same name as his maternal last name.
In Arden forest, it seems a truly beautiful society emerges of outcasts and disguised lovers. Let’s briefly look at two points of symbolism in this play to unlock Catholic themes Shakespeare desired us to see.
One, love letters are written and carved into trees. Only natural for a Catholic playwright who is used to seeing the crucifix at every illegal mass. For the ultimate forever love letter was carved into a tree by God for all to see. His beloved son crucified on a dead tree under the banner “INRI.”
Two, an odd scene happens between two fighting brothers. Randomly, Orlando risks his live to save his brother Oliver from a hungry lioness. Even though Orlando is mistreated and hated by his brother, he still risks his life and saves him from the lioness. They are reconciled partly thru this great act of bravery. Let’s not overlook the Catholic symbolism here either.
Lion is an obvious symbol for royalty. Not only the Davidic and Judean dynasty which Christ hails from, but also the English symbol of royalty, which in As You Like It represents the evil tyrant and English ruler during the composition of the play, Queen Elizabeth. The hope of English Catholics was that reconciliation would happen with their Protestant brothers. At the end of her long and torturous reign, Shakespeare realized this might only happen once the Lioness dies. The glimmer of hope in the play is that the usurping Duke who also represents the Queen repents of his evil due to meeting an old religious man on the road to the Forest of Arden. He ends his days praying in the forest after “his crown bequeathing to his banished brother, and all their lands restored to them again that were with him exiled.”
The usurping ruler converts and all is restored, a beautiful dream of all English Catholics, from Shakespeare’s generation to this day. And so, Shakespeare’s message to the Queen is clear. Repent and convert. And if not, the hope was that reconciliation of England would happen after her death.
If Shakespeare’s comedies are titled as plays for pleas, then take the title as you please. But one clear way is as a message to the tyrant Queen. There is so much hope and wonder in this play, but this short write-up is enough to see Shakespeare’s comedy as he intended, as a “play for plea” that is “so framed to life that it serves as a common commentary of all the actions of our lives.” And as a message to the evil tyrant, “as you like it.”
Truly, there is much gravity in Shakespeare’s comedies. And this is part of why he’s the poet of poets and playwright of playwrights, storyteller par excellence. Let all who love Christ study scripture. And let all Americans who love Jesus study Shakespeare.
True is it that we have seen better days
And have with holy bell been knolled to church,
And sat at good men's feasts and wiped our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity hath engendered.
And therefore sit you down in gentleness,
And take upon command what help we have
That to your wanting may be ministered.
Hamlet
To be or not to be, Catholic, that is the question.
Tragedy, ~1600, 1st published as Quarto
Poison through the ear in a garden brings death to a kingdom. A king murdered by his brother, his bride taken by the usurper, and the true heir cast aside from the throne. Denmark’s heir and the story’s hero, Hamlet, is asked by the ghost of his father to avenge his death and restore the kingdom. As the son of the true king, he willingly lays down his life to ensure peace and righteousness is restored to his homeland.
The play resounds with Catholic themes and symbolism, whether purgatory, the invocation of saints, genuine repentance and salvation, poisoned chalices, and the mention of Wittenberg and the Diet of Worms, Shakespeare surely knows how to craft the details of the story with unmistakable themes from the Protestant deformation of the Catholic religion. There is no mistaking our hero is not simply a Christ-figure, but also a priest-figure, as Shakespeare often weaves themes from his cousin’s masterpiece, An Epistle of Comfort, into the story of Hamlet. Penned by the Jesuit priest and martyr, Saint Report Southwell, An Epistle of Comfort is a mediation on how to die well, and Hamlet’s lips spill Southwell’s insights in masterful soliloquies and dialogue throughout the play.
To be or not to be Catholic, truly, that is the question Shakespeare asks his audience to consider in tyrannical England, through the guise of an old fable about usurped Denmark, that in the particular represents England, and in the universal resonates with any who suffer under tyranny.
Now is the Time in which many of our forefathers desired to live — a time when they might not only profit the church by the example of their life, and the virtue of their preaching, but also — and how much did they desire it! — by the effusion of their blood. when england was catholic, she had many glorious confessors; it is for the honor and benefit of our country that it should be well stored with a number of martyrs; and we have now, god be thanked! such martyr-makers in authority, as mean, if they have their will, to make saints enough to funish all our churches with treasure, when it shall please god to restore them to their true honors; and doubt not but either they, or their posterity, shall see the very prisons of execution become palaces of reverence and devotion; and the scattered bones of these that in this cause have suffered, though now thought unworthy of christian burial, then shrined in gold, and held in the highest respect.
— Saint Robert Southwell, An epistle of comfort (1587)
Twelfth Night
Or, what you will
Comedy, ~1601, 1st published in Folio
This play is among my favorite of Shakespeare’s. It is the one that most clearly opened my eyes to the difference between churches and gave me clarity about becoming Catholic. Previously, as a Protestant unaware of history, I thought all that mattered was Christ, meaning the doctrinal differences were not that important, most important was the message of love that Christ shared with the world. Shakespeare’s comedy about the Christmas season taught me so much more. It taught me about love and authority; it taught me about the sacraments and apostolic succession. And in the end, it taught me of the importance of the Catholic Church. So how did this quirky little comedy do this, well, let’s see if i can help you hear what I heard in Shakespeare.
First comes the play’s title, named after the 12th night of the Christmas season which ends with the dawn of epiphany, a feast celebrating the revelation of Christ to the nations. The subtitle to the play is Or What You Will, meaning with epiphany comes a decision. Christ is revealed, how will we respond? Like the magi and shepherds who worship the King of Kings? Or like King Herod who slaughters the innocents? For the Christian, epiphany leads to worship Christ, even amidst persecution. And so this is the context of simply reflecting a little on the play’s title.
As a 16th century Englishman, there is even more to the title. In Queen Elizabeth’s England, the Catholic feast days are increasingly becoming a memory of the past. As the country is becoming more and more Protestant, Christ’s mass is disappearing from the country. Christ’s mass is illegal in Elizabethan England as priests are punished unto death. Christmas is no longer a season of festivity. And there is even pressure among other Protestant sects (like the Puritans) to remove the holiday altogether.
The contrast is significant. In Catholic countries, Christ’s mass is held every day of the year and Christmas is a season. In Protestant countries, Christmas is simply a day, a day reminding English speakers of England’s rich Catholic history. While the 12th night is a wonderful season for Catholics it has increasingly less meaning for Protestants. This is the setup for Shakespeare’s audience even before we get to the story of the play itself.
The play starts with a shipwreck and twins separated from one another. Opposite sex twins, Viola and Sebastian, look alike. Viola, whose name derived from violet which is the color of kings, takes on the name and disguise of Cesario, a name hearkening to empire. As Cesario, Viola becomes a page to the Duke. She is a representative of the political power. And as Cesario, Viola is charged with sharing the message of love to the object of the Duke’s affection, Olivia.
Only, as this is a comedy, hilariously Olivia falls in love with Cesario while Viola falls for the Duke. This is worth noticing.
On one hand, the messenger of love falls for the political power who loves another and becomes a faithful messenger of his love. But the messenger does so in disguise, in false appearances, not in fullness of truth and transparency.
And on the other hand, Olivia falls for the messenger of love rather than the one who sends her. In disguise, this messenger is not who she appears to be. Of course, this is Shakespeare who transforms confusion into comedy. And through allegory, communicates a deeper message for Catholics.
Throughout this, a Catholic sees the symbols of the Anglican Church in Viola, appearing to be something she is not but sharing an important message and declaration of love. Anglicans share Christ’s love but they do so originating from the King of England, not the King of Kings. This is critical, for Christ founded the Catholic Church while, in contrast, the origins of the earliest Protestant churches where not Christ himself but fallen away Catholics. Luther was a Catholic monk, Calvin was a Catholic lawyer whose father was close to the bishop, and Henry was a Catholic king, a defender of the faith even. In Shakespeare’s genius, he gives us an amazing allegory to highlight the difference of origins of different churches. This is shown even more profoundly in a curious part of the story touching on authority and trust involving Viola’s brother, Sebastian.
As the story progresses, we find out that during that time Sebastian has been saved by Antonio, who Catholic audiences have seen previously represents the pope. Shakespeare’s pattern of representing the pope with characters named Antonio was first introduced in Taming of the Shrew and advanced in Merchant of Venice. Antonio is a good disguise for the Pope because Catholics know that Antonio is the birth name of the pope who excommunicates Queen Elizabeth. And in the play, Antonio entrusts Sebastian with a purse. Now, Viola as Cesario is a spitting image of Sebastian and people can’t tell them apart. Not even Antonio. This is a true case of mistaken identity. Viola as Cesario may have the message of the ruler’s love but she doesn’t have the purse which Antonio gave to Sebastian - even if she looks like his spitting image. For Catholics, this is a great description of the Anglican Church.
And so when Antonio goes to get back what he entrusted, she rightly says “My having is not much.” She may look like her brother but she is not him. She just looks like him. Anglicans may look like Catholics but they are not. Anglican resemblance to the Catholic Church does not mean they have received what Christ gave the church he founded, the apostolic authority and the divine sacraments. Their emergence from a Catholic milieu and their founding by the king of England does not grant them the authority that the King of Kings has provided for his bride. Shakespeare gives us a remarkable image of the issue separating the Catholic and Protestant churches. Both share the message of love, but only one has the authority granted by Christ himself.
In the end, Shakespeare uses this hilarious comedy about mistaken identity and the message of love to reveal the sacramental life to his kinsmen, truly giving us a teaching that ends in revelation of truth, love and authority. Beneath the hilarious confusion of Twelfth Night is a Catholic meditation on love, truth, sacramental gifts, and the authority by which those gifts are transmitted.
Or, what you will.
Troilus & Cressida
Never Writer to Ever Reader: News.
In the preface to Troilus & Cressida, Shakespeare guides his “ever readers” into some deeper truths. He tells them, “And were but the vain name of comedies changed for the titles of commodities, or of plays for pleas, you should see all those grand censors, that now style them such vanities, flock to them for the main grace of their gravities, especially this author’s comedies, that are so framed to the life that they serve for the most common commentaries of all the actions of our lives.” And that’s exactly the way to describe Shakespeare’s canon,
“The most common commentaries of all the actions of our lives.”
And this is where we begin