HOW DID HAMLET'S FATHER DIE?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 421, 18 July 1947, Page 8

HOW DID HAMLET'S FATHER DIE?

The Mystery of the Murder in the Orchard

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| Talk by

R. R.

SIMPSON

HE problem of the death of ‘Hamlet's father has always puzzled me. You will remember that the old king was asleep in the orchard when . Claudius came up to Him and poured some drops into his ears. It seems to me odd that Shakespeare should use such an unusual method. Many other methods were open to him, all of them much more certain. I know of no other instance in literature where the victim was killed by having drops poured into his’ ear. Perhaps the Borgias may have done so. but I know of no such record.

— When you consider how sensitive the ear is, it is difficult to believe that drops could be poured into it, even when the victim is asleep, without disturbing and wakening him. Even if we believe in that, ‘can we accept that drops put into the ear can cause death? Is there such a poison? For the purposes of the play we must accept this and most people do without any more consideration. But the problem is worthy of much

more thought than that. it,is the manner of the death of Hamlet’s father ‘which justifies the ensuing tragedies, It ‘ought. not to be accepted, therefore, merely to allow us to get on with the play. There was, in fact, no suspicion of foul play among the people of the | country: "Tis given out, that sleeping in mine orchard, A serpent stung me: so the whole ear of Denmark, Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abus’d.... . (Act 1, Se. 5). Admissible Evidence Moreover, the only evidence we have of how’the crime was committed is the evidence of the supernatural-the Ghost. The audience of Shakespeare’s day. believed in the supernatural. They would readily accept such evidence. But can we? If we take the questions in the order I have raised them and go back to the actual words of the play, you may agree that it is not so unreasonable as we had supposed. Is it’ possible to pour drops into the’ ear of a sleeping man without disturbing and wakening him? The Ghost tells us what happened: : . «+.» Sleeping within mine orchard, My custom always in the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebonon in a vial And in the parches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment. (Act 1, Sc. 5)

First it is obvious the weather was suitable. I picture a warm sultry after noon with the old king asleep under a bee-droning apple-tree. Then it was "upon my secure hour," i.e., when his sleep was soundest. Later in the play Hamlet tells us: "He took my father, full of bread" (Act III, Sc. 3). I imagine the king had retired to the orchard to sleep off the effects of a hearty lunch. If we are correct in-our picture of a warm afternoon and a man sound asleep after a hearty meal we may assume that Claudius, clutching the precious vial in his hand, had thus warmed the already warm drops almost to blood temperature. And there are two important comments about these drops; they were the "juice" of cursed hebonon — and they were a "distilment."" The "juice" suggests to me the expression, pharmaceutically speaking, of the essen-

tial oils of the plant. "Distilment" further sugests it was an alcoholic dis tillation of the es+ sential. oils, so be~ loved of ancient alchemists. Let us suppose it was an Oily, alcoholic fluid that was used and it becomes a matter of observable fact that such drops, warmed to body temperature, could with comparative ease be instilled into the porches of the ears without dis turbing a man deeply asleep.

Awkward Question Now comes an awkward quéstion: Do we know of any drug which could cause death if introduced into the ear in this way? There is a method of anaesthetising a membrane of the ear in which cocaine and anilin are used. But anilin must be used with caution, It must not be allowed to remain in contact with the eardrum for more than 10 minutes. If it does it’ is absorbed through the eardrum into the blood. This will cause a change in the blood. The haemoglobin becomes what is called methaemoglobin and the patient turns a blue colour. If this be true of anilin, could "the juice of cursed hebonon" be absorbed and exert a deadly poisonous effect? What is the juice of cursed hebonon? Here a dispute arises among the ex‘perts on’ the text of the play. It ‘is. "hebonon" in the Folio edition, but in the Quarto edition it reads "hebona." , There is no known drug with the name "hebonon," but some experts say it is a misprint or corruption for henbane. On the other hand "hebona" refers to what was known as ebony or what we would call to-day guiacum. In de- ciding for myself on henbane rather than hebona, I am not influenced, I confess, by the pros and cons of the textual experts. I think the medical evidence in the Ghost’s speech decides the

issue. To me in medical terms the "juice" meant the expressed juice of a plant. It could therefore be the juice of henbane; but hebona or ebony or guiacum is the resin of a tree. There is therefore a considerable difference. The old alchemists would not be likely to use the term "juice" loosely for two such distinctive products. Next it was a distilment and again the pharmacologists would distil henbane but not guiacum. In addition henbane in a fraction of a grain is a very potent poison. But the medicinal dose of guiacum is 5-15 grains. From our study too-of the accurate use to which Shakespeare put his knowledge of other poisons, e.g., aconite, etc., it would be unlike our experience of him to find him tripping up in this important’ detail. Death and Dermatitis | Henbane is the plant hyoscyamus niger. It proves deadly when eaten by poultry-hence its name. The poisonous alkaloid hyoscine can be obtained both from the freshly expressed juice and from alcoholic extracts. A very small amount of this alkaloid is fatal to human beings. While I know of no reference in the modern literature of toxicology to hyoscine being absorbed through the skin of the ear, we are not in a position to know precisely what preparation might have been used by the old alchemists. But we do know that Pliny refers precisely to oil of henbane in the treatment of earache. Shakespeare may have known of this reference. Since we know that anilin is absorbed and acts on the blood, it is not so far-fetched to -imegine that such a _ preparation of hyoscine\. could also be~absorbed and exert its poisonous effects on the blood. But even yet Shakespeare has not finished with the details. His final description tells us clearly of the skin eruption which spread rapidly all over the victim’s body as a result of the poisoning. And a most instant tetter bark’d about, Mest lazar like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. (Act I, Se. 5). Is there such a skin condition? Can it be produced in the manner described? And .can it cause death? To me the description. is that of acute exfoliative dermatitis, a disease in which the entire skin of the body may be shed in "vile and loathsome crust." This skin ¢ondition may arise in several ways. It is known to have been caused, for example, by the injection into a vein of very small amounts of arsenic. So that small quantities of poison in the blood . can give rise to this hofrible skin disease. And in some cases it can prove rapidly fatal. One other point intrigues me about _ this method of poisoning. There would be no external evidence. The leperous distilment was probably a_ brownish oily extract and small in quantity-"in "a vial." So even if the ears were examined after death, I doubt if the poison could be distinguished from the soft wax found naturally in the ear. It would seem that here we have the almost perfect crime. No clues were left and death was attributed to the serpent’s bite, as it might easily have been. Only once before the Ghost speaks does Hamlet express any suspicion. When Horatio has told him about the Ghost walking, ' Hamlet exclaims: My father’s spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play. (Act I, Se. 2). We are left then to decide on the evidence supplied by the Ghost. And while I have some doubts about supernatural evidence being accepted nowadays, you may agree with me that there is’ something intriguingly persuasive about the. arguments I have presented.