Difference between revisions of "Why Snakebite"

Revision as of 02:07, 16 April 2014

In Scene 5 the Ghost says:

Scene 5#040    'Tis given out, that sleeping in my orchard,
Scene 5#041    A serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark
Scene 5#042    Is by a forged process of my death
Scene 5#043    Rankly abused; ...

The word process refers to the legal process of the coroner's court. We see in the play in the Graveyard Scene, Scene 19, that there is a coroner's court which issues rulings on cause of death.

The coroner's court ruled on King Hamlet's death. The Ghost insinuates that the legal process was abused, meaning the ruling, of snakebite, was knowingly false.

In considering this point, one first observes that King Hamlet died in the springtime. That is not really open to dispute. For one thing, the Dumb Show description, before the 'Mousetrap' play in Scene 9, states explicitly that the king lies down on a bank of flowers. Other indications in the play agree on it being springtime. See the Time of Year page, for a full presentation. Read the Dumb Show description if you haven't yet: Scene 9#121-DS1

When King Hamlet went to the orchard to enjoy a nap, it was a warm, sunny day. That must be the case, or no one would ever have believed the snakebite story. People know snakes are cold blooded. People can't be "abused" by things they don't believe in the first place.

When Queen Gertrude returned, in an hour or so, and found she could not wake King Hamlet, she cried out for help. It takes only ordinary common sense to know that. People came running. When they did, someone saw a snake slithering away into the shrubbery.

A snake, in an orchard, on a warm, sunny day in spring, is no miracle. One would nearly be more surprised if there were not a snake.

Part of the testimony the coroner heard, then, was that some one saw a snake, as he came running to see why Gertrude had cried out.

The coroner examined the King's body, superficially. He had none of the tools and techniques of modern science. He could only go by what he saw. He did not do an autopsy, because no such thing was socially permissible, and if he had tried, he would not have known what to look for, or what he was looking at. He had no laboratory to which he could send tissue samples to make various tests. So, basically, the coroner just looked at King Hamlet's body.

On the body he found two puncture wounds, close together, with the area around them swollen. They looked like injuries that could be left by a serpent's fangs.

Based on that, he ruled "snakebite." It was an honest verdict. Going by what he heard ("I saw a snake!") and what he saw for himself (two stings, close together) he truly thought it was a case of snakebite.

What were those puncture wounds, those stings?

King Hamlet was lying on flowers. Human beings are not the only creatures that like flowers. Bees like flowers, including bumblebees. Bumblebees do not lose their stingers, when they sting, and they can sting more than once. The sting of the bumblebee is not terribly painful (although it will make a person "ow!" when it takes him by surprise, in my experience,) but the sting does produce an obvious swelling, with an obvious central wound.

Take a look at some well-known lines in the play:
"To be or not to be"
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
"If once I be a widow, ever I be a wife."

Then, in Scene 7 when Polonius tells Hamlet the Players have arrived, Hamlet replies, "Buzz buzz."

The dialogue was written to be spoken, of course. What does all that sound like? -

Be... be... be... be... be. Buzz buzz.

Bee... bee... bee... bee... bee. Buzz buzz.

The sting marks on King Hamlet's body, that the coroner saw, were bumblebee stings.

The coroner's court verdict was honest, although mistaken. When the Ghost insinuates that the verdict was not honest, it is lying.

© 2014 Jeffrey Paul Jordan

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