Hamlet's Letter To The Virgin Mary (ophelia)

DARK LADY PLAYERS WORKING PAPER (2009) NUMBER 2

HAMLET: HAMLET’S LETTER TO OPHELIA Polonius, reading the address of Hamlet’s letter “To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia. That’s a vile phrase; beautified is a vile phrase” (Hamlet, act 2, scene 2,line 109-11) The New Variorum edition notes that “beautified” is used in letters eg. in Nashe’s addressing a dedication to Lady Elizabeth Carey. However, the author of Shakespeare had used the term before in Two Gentlemen of Verona (4,1,55), and therefore would not have considered it a vile phrase. Beautified is also a rather pedestrian term—indeed it can have connotations of artificial beauty—to follow the other epithets. Theobald in his 7 volume work on the plays therefore suggested that the correct spelling is beatified. http://books.google.com/books?id=E1IrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA268&lpg=PA268&dq= OPHELIA+BEATIFIED&source=bl&ots=PywoKchvW4&sig=UwCdyKdcWOGeOD Hc_klL597Pi88&hl=en&ei=4VQZSoSHOMyEtweNsvDmDA&sa=X&oi=book_resu lt&ct=result&resnum=7 This is a term which the New Variorum notes is a term in Catholic theology “almost peculiarly applied to the Virgin Mary”, meaning being most blessed, or being turned into a saint. As an address on an envelope To; the Celestial and my soul’s Idol the most BEATIFIED Ophelia all four terms can be applied to the Virgin Mary. The ‘celestial’ means being in heaven, which is where Christians thought Mary had ascended. As an idol she was worshipped, and Ophelia is the Greek word for Succor, and Mary was the ‘Lady of Succour’ . The address is the functional equivalent of the angel’s greeting to Mary. Together with the other evidence it shows Ophelia is an allegory of the Virgin Mary. I4th century icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour/ Our Lady of Perpetual Help [email protected]