Shakespeare and the Romans

Shakespeare was greatly influenced by Roman writers, including Ovid, Virgil, and Suetonius. One of the most well known instances of this is the play Hamlet, in which Shakespeare’s main character, Hamlet, is better understood having read Virgil’s Aeneid. Hamlet shares several characteristics with Pyrrhus, the killer of Priam King of Troy, although Pyrrhus serves best as a contrast to Hamlet and an instigator of action.

Hamlet, the young prince of Denmark, is away at his school when his father is murdered by Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. Upon returning home, Hamlet finds himself with a need to avenge his father’s death by killing his murderer. The ghost of the dead king shows himself to Hamlet, and tells him of the murder, “If thou has nature in thee, bear it not. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest” (Act I, scene v, lines 88-90)Similarly, Pyrrhus’s father, Achilles, was killed by Priam’s son, Paris. Pyrrhus has a need to take revenge for his father’s death by killing Priam, since Paris is already dead.

However, here the two diverge in character. Hamlet is plagued with an inability to act, indecisive about whether the apparition was truly his father’s ghost or an evil spirit and troubled with the morality of killing his uncle. Debating on whether suicide would be better than facing the misfortunes facing him, Hamlet says, “O that this too too solid flesh would melt, / thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! / Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (Act I, scene ii, lines 135-138). Time passes and Hamlet still does not act and, lamenting his inaction, says to himself, “Yet I, / a dull and muddy-mettled rascal, / peak like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, / and can say nothing” (Act II, scene ii, lines 573-576) Pyrrhus, on the other hand, has no compunction about killing Priam and others. Priam tells Pyrrhus that he is disgraceful and a discredit to his father. Pyrrhus then says to Priam, “you will be my messenger and go to my father, son of Peleus. Let him know about my wicked deeds and do not forget to tell him about the degeneracy of his son Neoptolemus. Now, die” (Book II, lines 544-546). Even after Priam warns him that his father would not have approved, Pyrrhus still slaughters him.

The first sign we have of Hamlet taking action is just after a group of players come to Elsinore. We are told that these players are Hamlet’s favorites, and so it is no surprise that Hamlet asks one of them to recite a speech from a play he liked. The play happens to be a reenactment of Aeneas telling Dido of his adventures during and after the Trojan war; the selection Hamlet picks is the scene where Pyrrhus kills Priam. This scene has remarkable similarities to Virgil’s Aeneid. Shakespeare describes Priam’s attack at Pyrrhus: “Anon [Pyrrhus] finds him, / Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword, / Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, / Repugnant to command” (Act II, scene ii, lines 475-478). Likewise, Virgil says of it, “the old man feebly threw his harmless spear. It rattled on the bronze of Pyrrhus’ shield and hung there useless sticking on the surface of the central boss” (Book II, lines 543-544). Both passages depict Priam as an old, weak, yet brave king. Even though Priam knows he will not succeed, he must try to defend himself and his wife, Hecuba. Once he speaks to the king, Pyrrhus attacks and kills Priam. Shakespeare portrays the murder in these lines:

Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;

But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword

The unnerved father fallsâÂ?¦ so, after Pyrrhus’ pause,

Aroused vengeance sets him new awork;

And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall

On Mars’s armor, forged for proof eterne,

With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword

Now falls on Priam. (lines 479-499)

Virgil, on the other hand, described it in a much more bloody way: “As he spoke the word, he was dragging Priam to the very altar, his body trembling as it slithered through pools of his son’s blood. Winding Priam’s hair in his left hand, in his right he raised his sword with a flash of light and buried it to the hilt in Priam’s side” (lines 550-552). Both versions tell the same act, though in slightly different ways. Shakespeare’s version has less gore and doesn’t tell exactly how Priam was killed. We know Pyrrhus attacked him with his sword, but we don’t know in where he drove the sword. In contrast, Virgil tells exactly how Priam was killed, drawing a horrible picture of what happened to the old king. However, both versions do show Pyrrhus savagely attacking Priam with little or no remorse. After Priam is dead, both writers make a comparison of Priam’s death to Troy’s demise. Shakespeare says: “Then senseless Ilium, / Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top / Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash / Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear” (lines 481-484). Likewise, Virgil describes it as such: “So ended the destiny of Priam. This was the death that fell to his lot. He who had once been the proud ruler over so many lands and peoples of Asia died with Troy ablaze before his eyes and the citadel of Pergamum in ruins. His mighty trunk lay upon the shore, the head hacked from the shoulders, a corpse without a name” (lines 554-558). These two passages illustrate the idea that as fares the king, so fares the city. Troy is burning as Priam is dying.

This speech about Priam and Pyrrhus plays an important role in the play Hamlet. Up until this scene, Hamlet has not yet acted to take revenge. He spends his days wondering the castle, reading, and waxing philosophical. When he hears of brave Pyrrhus who takes his revenge without compunction or hesitation, he becomes very angry at himself for not acting. Later his rage turns to Claudius. Once the speech has ended, Hamlet takes the first player aside and asks him to perform a play into which he had added a dozen or so lines. Once he is alone, Hamlet launches into the second soliloquy, at the end of which he tells the audience of his plan to trap the Claudius by the play. Through this one speech about Pyrrhus and Priam, Hamlet has become a man with a course of action.

At last Hamlet will get his revenge for his father’s death. Laertes and Hamlet duel, and the king Claudius attempts to kill him by dropping a poisoned pearl into his glass of wine, though Hamlet does not drink it. Instead, Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, drinks the poisoned wine. She swoons while Hamlet and Laertes are still fighting, and though Claudius tries to convince Hamlet that she just swoons to see them bleed, the queen exclaims that it is her drink that is her death. Hamlet shouts to close the doors, that there’s treachery afoot, and Laertes explains the whole plot to him. In this scene we finally see Hamlet acting as Pyrrhus did. Seeking his revenge, Hamlet stabs his “envenomed” foil at Claudius, exclaiming “Then, venom, to thy work” (Act V, scene ii, line 342). Claudius calls for the rest of the court to help him, claiming that he is only hurt and not dying. Claudius’s reaction is in stark contrast to Priam, who took responsibility and tried to defend himself. We see how cowardly Claudius is throughout this whole scene, first in how he convinces Laertes to kill Hamlet for him, then how he poisons the wine, and finally how he relies on his friends to save him. He is scene as a despicable man who cannot lift a sword to accomplish his goals for himself. Hamlet, on the other hand, finally gains some respect by taking action to avenge his father. To finish off the king, Hamlet makes him drink the poisoned wine, saying, “Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, / Drink off this potion! Is thy union here? / Follow my mother” (lines 245-347). Much of the ruling party is dead now, Gertrude, Claudius, soon to be followed by Laertes and Hamlet. As Priam’s death echoed Troy’s, Hamlet’s death echoes the death of his family’s rule of Denmark, for Fortinbras of Norway marches on Elsinore and is proclaimed king.

The episode of Priam’s death in Virgil’s Aeneid serves well to help readers and viewers of Shakespeare’s Hamlet understand the plot and characters in a more detailed way. By comparing Hamlet to Pyrrhus and Claudius to Priam, these characters gain a new depth. By linking the death of a ruler to the death of a nation, the impact of death is intensified and can be seen on a much greater scale. Such similarities between Hamlet and the Aeneid lead one to guess that Shakespeare was greatly influenced by Virgil and other ancient Roman writers.