The Mouse Motif in Hamlet
Ray Eston Smith Jr
http://saintspreserved.com/gertrude.htm
Hamlet
...'tis an unweeded GARDEN
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
Hamlet [speaking to Gertrude]
. . . DO NOT SPREAD THE COMPOST ON THE WEEDS, To make them ranker.
"St. GERTRUDE of Nivelles d. 655 - virgin, abbess SYMBOL: MOUSE.
Saint Gertrude was a very popular saint in England, the Lowlands, and
neighboring countries. SHE HAD A GREAT DEVOTION TO THE SOULS IN
PURGATORY WHICH HAVE BEEN REPRESENTED IN THE PAST BY MICE. As late as
1822, offerings of gold and silver mice were still being left at her
shrine in Cologne."
The website where I obtained the above quote is now infected with a
trojan virus (or was the last time I dared to check it, several years
ago). Don't go there unless you're very confident of your virus
protection. If you want to risk it, change xxtp to http to activate
the link:
Warning, possibly still infected with Trojan virus:
xxtp://www.illuminatedink.com/saint_symbols/
On the internet, you can't even trust a saint!
Hamlet's father's ghost may have been in PURGATORY.
Francisco:
Not a MOUSE stirring.
King Claudius
What do you call the play?
Hamlet
The MOUSE-trap.
Hamlet
How now! a RAT? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
St GERTRUDE's Feast Day is March 17, the same as ST PATRICK's, who is
also a keeper of PURGATORY.
Horatio
There's no offence, my lord.
Hamlet
Yes, by SAINT PATRICK, but there is, Horatio, And much offence too.
Source:
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Gertrude_Garden "St Gertrude in the Garden"
I think I first noticed this connection May or June of 2007, when I
used it in YAHOO ANSWERS:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070606081432AAUXDJ5
The connection was also discovered independently by Jeffrey Paul
Jordan in Hamlet Regained:
http://www.hamletregained.com/characters.html
"Gertrude is implicitly associated with the Catholic saint, Saint
Gertrude of Nivelles. Saint Gertrude of N. is a patron of the recently
dead, gardeners, and pilgrims, and is also a patron against rats and
mice, all of which are ideas that appear in the play. The feast day of
Saint Gertrude of N. is March 17, the same as that of Saint Patrick,
who is mentioned in the play. Saint Gertrude of N. had a substantial
following in Europe in Elizabethan times. (Saint Gertrude of Nivelles
is not to be confused with Saint Gertrude "The Great.")"
Ray Eston Smith Jr
Re: priority of discovery
I found this earlier date for Hamlet (Regained):
H A M L E T (Regained) Walkthrough and Timeline
Apr 18, 2007 ... March 17 is also the feast day of Saint Gertrude of
Nivelles, who is associated ... H A M L E T (Regained). Go to the.
Playtext Scenes page ...
www.hamletregained.com/timeline_walk.html - Cached - Similar
However, it also appears in my "More Motifs in Hamlet" going back to
March, 2007:
http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/More_Motifs_in_Hamlet#St_Gertrude
--Ray Eston Smith Jr 22:37, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
- that's the date at the bottom of the page, when the whole page was
created. Subsequent edits to sections, if any, show separate dates.
So it looks like it was very close to a tie. Great minds think
alike. I'm sure that neither of Jeffrey Paul Jordon nor I was the
first to notice this connection. Shakespeare put it there TO BE
noticed. However, we seem to be the only ones who've mentioned it on
the Internet. Hopefully it will be mentioned more frequently in the
future.
book...@yahoo.com
"mole" is relative to mouse and rat? Maybe there's a mole archetype,
too.
Ray Eston Smith Jr
It could be. I think the main significance of mole is that the ghost
was burrowing like a mole and also like a pioneer undermining pales
and forts just as Hamlet's mole of nature (his birth) was undermining
the pales and forts of his reason. Thus it subtly indicates that
Hamlet's father's spirit is the cause of his madness. However, if you
noticed the association of mouse, rat, and mole in the rodent
category, I'm sure Shakespeare noticed it too.
Ray Eston Smith Jr
re: precedence of discovery. I found this on Google:
Be All My Sins Remembered
Feb 20, 2005 - Essays on Hamlet by Ray Eston Smith Jr email:
thyo...@yahoo.com ...... "St. Gertrude of Nivelles d. 655 - virgin,
abbess Symbol: mouse Saint Gertrude was ...
www.thyorisons.com/ - Cached
That Feb 20, 2004 date makes no sense. I didn't create the www.thyorisons.website
until just a few weeks ago.
elizabeth weir
Here's a painting dated 1530 of St. Gertrude
of Nivelles with mice at her feet.
<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__6d9eRa81po/SGQLhxgSrAI/AAAAAAAAAhc/kaP3iKAFboM/s1600-h/GetrudNivelles.jpg>
Ray Eston Smith Jr
> __________________________________________
>
> Here's a painting dated 1530 of St. Gertrude
> of Nivelles with mice at her feet.
>
Right after that painting was completed she screamed "Rats! Rats!" and
stomped on them.
Thanks for that link. The 1530 date reinforces the probability that
Shakespeare knew about the association between Gertrude and rodents
(unless Google somehow went back in time and retroactively pre-dated
the date of the painting the way they did with the creation date of my
new website.)