SHAKSPER 2001: Re: Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 09/17/01 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.2184  Monday, 17 September 2001

[1]     From:   Steve Roth <steve@steve-roth.com>
        Date:   Friday, 14 Sep 2001 09:13:22 -0700
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2177 Re: Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet

[2]     From:   John Ramsay <jramsay@mergetel.com>
        Date:   Saturday, 15 Sep 2001 16:44:30 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2166 Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet

[3]     From:   Jack Heller <quomodo@edistoelectric.net>
        Date:   Saturday, 15 Sep 2001 21:16:05 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2177 Re: Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Steve Roth <steve@steve-roth.com>
Date:           Friday, 14 Sep 2001 09:13:22 -0700
Subject: 12.2177 Re: Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2177 Re: Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet

>From:           Steve Sohmer <DRSOHMER@aol.com>

> "fat" Hamlet is a players' inside joke ala
>the exchange between Burbage [Hamlet] and Shakespeare [Polonius] about
>killing the calf in the capitol.

I've found this item to be quite curious. I've scoured Chambers,
Baldwin, Bowers, Schoenbaum, etc. etc. and can't find any reference to
Burbage being fat. I've posted this query to this list a couple of
times, asking if there are other refs, but no replies.

This "fat Burgage" tradition seems to be doubly apocryphal, because
there's not even any apocrypha suggesting that Burbage was fat. Baldwin,
among others, draws the conclusion from this line only. He may have been
fat, of course, or there may be a reference I haven't found.

Is that the joke you're suggesting, that it's referring to Burbage's
proportions? I would love to hear a better explanation of the joke,
because I can't make sense of it on available evidence. ("Strong and
scant of breath" doesn't make sense to me either; seems contradictory,
especially in context.)

Thanks,
Steve
http://princehamlet.com

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           John Ramsay <jramsay@mergetel.com>
Date:           Saturday, 15 Sep 2001 16:44:30 -0400
Subject: 12.2166 Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2166 Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet

> In his booklet The Language of Hamlet (London: U of London, 1995), David
> Daniell, notes that in Judges 3: 29 in the Tyndale Bible, the Moabites
> are described as ˇ§all fat, and men of might,ˇ¨ where ˇ§fatˇ¨ should be
> interpreted as ˇ§very strongˇ¨ (pp.21-23). He goes on to suggest that
> the same reading of the word should be applied to the speech where
> Gertrude says Hamlet ˇ§is fat and scant of breathˇ¨ (5.2.290); i.e.,
> Hamlet is strong and hardly losing his breath.
>
> Any comment on this?
>
> Ching-Hsi Perng


Gertrude says it and also twice tries to wipe the sweat from Hamlet's
face. Not consistent with Hamlet being fit and hardly losing breath.

Earlier Hamlet tells Horatio he has been in continuous practice in
response to Horatio saying he'll lose the wager/duel, which also
suggests lack of physical conditioning.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Jack Heller <quomodo@edistoelectric.net>
Date:           Saturday, 15 Sep 2001 21:16:05 -0400
Subject: 12.2177 Re: Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2177 Re: Tyndale Bible and "fat" Hamlet

I need help with this:

>David Daniell has often said, "No Tyndale, no Shakespeare." Tyndale's
>prose, says Daniell wisely, sparked the explosion of 16th century
>English literature. Shakespeare certainly seems to express a debt to
>Tyndale when he puts into the mouth of his Buckingham an echo of
>Tyndale's dying prayer that God open the King of England's eyes, which
>could be found in Foxe.

I read Tyndale's Obedience of a Christian Man this summer. It's good
prose, and certainly any development in prose style would set the stage
for Shakespeare's later achievement. But Shakespeare seems ideologically
apart from Tyndale, and I'm not sure that the similarity of language of
Buckingham's prayer and Tyndale's is unusual enough to show debt. So
could you suggest a source, perhaps by Daniell, that elaborate on this
claim of influence?

Thanks,
Jack Heller

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