Because Hamlet's "supper" of politic worms is
now located "in heaven,” Naseeb Shaheen refers to
this passage as "a clear echo of the Biblical supper
promised
to those who inherit the kingdom of
heaven” (1987 108) and detects a possible allusion
to a marked verse in the de Vere Bible, Revelation
3.20
5
(figure sixty-six), in which this theme is mentioned.
By far the most intriguing perspective for analyzing the passage is, however, the doctrinal
one. Hamlet's riddling answers to the inquisition over the location of the corpse of Polonius are
fraught with theological conundrums. The busybody old counselor, killed "dead for a ducat," and
for being "too busy" while
alive, undergoes a parody of transubstantiation after death. His
Protestant "corpus" is translated by a host of worms. Hamlet the existentialist concludes that
although the Protestant critique of Catholicism may have been inevitable, it has replaced corrupt
and complaisant despots with meddling Jepthas like Polonius who will do almost anything for a
ducat. Both, in the end, will be devoured by worms.
5
For possible alternative influences see Shaheen 1987 108.
Figure Sixty-six: Revelations 3.20 in de Vere STC
2106.
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