Astrophysicist Finds New Scientific Meaning In 'Hamlet' (Forwarded)

[Andrew Yee <ayee@...>]

Astrophysicist Finds New Scientific Meaning In 'Hamlet'

1-13-97

University Park, Pa. -- A paper read today (Jan. 13) at the
American Astronomical Society meeting in Toronto, Canada, offers a
new interpretation of Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

The paper, by Peter D. Usher, professor of astronomy and
astrophysics at Penn State, presents evidence that Hamlet is "an
allegory for the competition between the cosmological models of
Thomas Digges of England and Tycho Brahe of Denmark."

Usher says the paper is significant because Shakespeare favors the
Diggesian model, which is the forerunner of modern cosmology.

"As early as 1601, Shakespeare anticipated the new universal order
and humankind's position in it," Usher states. "The play therefore
manifests an astronomical cosmology that is no less magnificent
than its literary and philosophical counterparts."

Claudius Ptolemy perfected a model of the universe in the second
century A.D. that remained the standard model into the sixteenth
century. In this model, the Earth was stationary at the center of
the universe and everything else revolved around it. In 1543,
Nicholas Copernicus of Poland published a revolutionary model
(which is essentially the one in use today) in which the Earth
rotates on its axis once a day and is merely one of several
planets that revolve about the Sun. Though the Copernican model
had been published before Shakespeare was born, it was not yet in
vogue in his lifetime.

However, both the Ptolemaic and the Copernican systems were
contained in a crystalline sphere, beyond which lay Paradise and
the realm of the Prime Mover. By contrast, in 1576 when
Shakespeare was 12 years old, the English scientist and military
scholar Thomas Digges extended the Copernican model by suggesting
that the stars were like the Sun and were distributed through
infinite space. He was therefore the first Renaissance scholar to
publish the idea of an infinite universe. Eight years later
similar ideas were published in a book by the Italian philosopher
Giordano Bruno.

Shakespeare would have known of the existence of these competing
cosmological models through his acquaintance with Digges.

"Through Digges, Shakespeare knew also of the astronomer Tycho
Brahe, and he named the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
for Tycho's ancestors," the paper states.

Tycho's model of the universe was similar to Ptolemy's in two
major ways: it was Earth-centered, and it too was imbedded in a
spherical shell of stars.

This paper suggests that Hamlet dramatizes the struggle of
Renaissance scholars to discover the real picture of the universe
from the appearances in the sky. "When Hamlet states: 'I could be
bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space ... '
he is contrasting the shell of fixed stars in the Ptolemaic,
Copernican, and Tychonic models with the Infinite Universe of
Digges," Usher says.

The paper notes that the play is set in Elsinore Castle, named for
Helsingr Castle which was being built at the time that Tycho was
constructing his observatory at Uraniborg. When Hamlet says: "By
my fay, I cannot reason," he means that his freedom to reason is
restricted at Elsinore," Usher claims.

Hamlet is a student at Wittenberg, a center for Copernican
learning. When Hamlet announces a desire to return to study in
Wittenberg, the King demurs, saying: "It is most retrograde to our
desire." "The double meaning refers to Hamlet's retrograde -- or
contrary -- motion to the place of learning which is a seat of
Copernican cosmology," Usher says.

Retrograde motion occurs around the time of Opposition and is a
perverse westward motion relative to the sphere of the stars. Such
perversity was a puzzling feature of the heavens for it
contradicted the perfect simplicity of geocentricity.

The term "retrograde" follows hard upon the use of the term
"opposition" -- which is the configuration when the planets Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn, undergo retrograde motion in the sky whenever
they lie in a direction opposite to that of the Sun.

"Claudius is named for Claudius Ptolemy who perfected the
geocentric model," says Usher. " Claudius personifies Ptolemaic
geocentricism while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern personify
Tychonic geocentricism. The latter are summoned by Claudius
because the position of the King is threatened by the young
Hamlet, who personifies the Infinite Universe of Digges.

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are contemporaries of Hamlet just as
Tycho and Digges were contemporaries. Digges' model killed
geocentricism just as Hamlet is responsible for the deaths of
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and then of Claudius," Usher says.

"The slaying of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is the Bard's way of
favoring the Diggesian model over the Tychonic, while the death of
Claudius signals the end of geocentricism. Shakespeare delays
dispatching Claudius until the final act to simulate the
protracted dominance of the Ptolemaic model over fourteen
centuries."

The gravedigger identifies Hamlet as the one sent to England to
recover from madness; though if he doesn't, he'll be at home in
England because "there the men are as mad as he."

But Hamlet makes it clear that he is merely "mad in craft."
"Hamlet's 'madness' is associated both with the new cosmology and
Digges' advocacy of the experimental method," according to Usher.

Digges was born about the year 1546 and his Perfit Description was
first published in 1576. "Shakespeare may have given Hamlet the
age of 30 years because Digges was about that old when he first
proposed the infinite universe," Usher speculates.

"The chief climax of the play is the return of Fortinbras from
Poland and his salute to the ambassadors from England," Usher
says. "Here Shakespeare signifies the triumph of the Copernican
model and its Diggesian corollary.

"While the last year of the sixteenth century saw the martyrdom of
Bruno, the first year of the seventeenth century sees the
completion of Hamlet and the Bard's magnificent poetic affirmation
of the infinite universe of stars," Usher concludes. "For these
reasons in this tragic play, Shakespeare, Digges and Bruno, speak
to our day."

   **PDU/BKK**

EDITORS: Peter D. Usher is at (814) 865-3509 or at
pusher en astro.psu.edu on the Internet.

Contact:
Barbara K. Kennedy (814) 863-4682 science en psu.edu


---
Andrew Yee
ayee en nova.astro.utoronto.ca