Did Shakespeare play tarot?

Amleth

I'm a student (adult) of Shakespeare, with a serious interest in Hamlet. It appears to me that, in Hamlet at least, Shakespeare made allusion to certain tarot card pictures, particularly those of the Visconti Sforza deck. I'll offer specific examples of what I mean.

There's a point where Hamlet is talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in the so-called "little eyases" or "aerie of children" passage:

Rosencrantz first says to Hamlet: "... there is an aerie of children, little
eyases..." (An "eyas" is a nestling hawk, a young bird, being used there in figurative reference to boy actors.)

Then, just a bit later, the following exchange occurs:

Hamlet: Do the boys carry it away?
Ros: Aye, that they do, my Lord; Hercules and his load, too.

Hercules's "load" was the world, when he substituted for Atlas. Rosencrantz means the boys carried the world of acting away, so to speak. One more point is that Elsinore Castle is the "world" of Hamlet, and it's a castle by the sea. Now, look at the World card in the Visconti Sforza deck.

It shows two "boys" (cherubs) with wings. They can be viewed as "little eyases." The "world" they're carrying, like Hercules, is a castle by the sea, like Elsinore Castle. I find the correspondence between the card picture and the Hamlet dialogue extremely intriguing. There's more.

Laertes, at one point, says to Ophelia:
"The chariest maid is prodigal enough
If she unmask her beauty to the moon." (In modern meaning "chary" means "careful," but in older usage it meant "sorrowful.") The Moon card in the VS deck does depict a "chary" maiden, with her beautiful face unmasked, showing her sad face to the moon.

Elsewhere in the play, Hamlet characterizes his father as Hercules. Then, when he wants to follow the Ghost, Hamlet speaks of the Nemean lion. The VS Strength or Fortitude card does depict Hercules battling the lion.

Elsewhere, Hamlet speaks of R & G being "about the waist" of Fortune. The VS Wheel card (and the same card in other decks) does show two characters who are "about the waist" level of Fortune, on the sides of the Wheel.

I could mention several more examples, perhaps as many as a dozen altogether, where the Hamlet dialogue is suggestive of some tarot card picture, especially VS pics. There's the Star, the Sun, the Magician (sometimes called Mountebank, so I've read,) and the Old Man (suggestive of Polonius.) My theory is that Shakespeare was a tarot player, and he made use of some tarot card pictures in his writings. It's certainly possible he played tarot, since some of the decks go back easily to Elizabethan times, and tarot seems to have been popular in that era. Also, the tarot pictures would have provided ready-made illustrations for the play when it was printed. Those who had tarot decks could have looked at certain cards, at certain points in reading the play, and gotten an emblematic representation, at least, for the passage. (Emblem books were quite popular in that era.)

But I know far more about Hamlet than I do about tarot. So, I'm hoping for input from tarot historians. Particularly, is there any reason to think Shakespeare could not have had a VS deck in England at that time? That would immediately shoot down my theory, if there's some specific reason in tarot history why he couldn't have had a VS deck. Then, what other decks of that era should I look at, as well, that Shakespeare might have had, and made reference to? Any decks in particular? And I'd be interested in other comments about Shakespeare possibly having been a tarot player.

Perhaps I should make it clear that I don't mean to suggest Shakespeare writing Hamlet by dealing a deck of tarot, or anything like that. (I can't absolutely rule that out, but I doubt it.) I'm focused especially on certain passages in the play, in relation to certain tarot pics which could possibly have provided illustrations for the passages. If this theory could be advanced, it seems to me it would be significant both for tarot history, and Shakespeare studies.
 

Fulgour

"Did Shakespeare play tarot?"

Hi :) Amleth! In my university days I studied
Renaissance Literature, including 15 hours of
Shakespeare (as an undergrad, still amazed).
There is another thread around here abouts,
but my answer to your post is a large: YES!

Welcome :) to Aeclectic Tarot!
~Fulgour
 

Amleth

Hi, Fulgour,

Thank you very much for the kind welcome. I did a search earlier, and also I saw another thread with "Shakespeare" in the title, but I couldn't find anything on this specific point. I'm still reading, and searching. I've got a lot to learn!
 

jmd

Welcome indeed!

Even if Shakespeare did not see such a deck (whether Visconti-type, 'Charles VI', or other), he would have likely had access to images of a similar nature... or at least drawing from some common sources.

Perhaps of worth is reading the Essay by Manly P. Hall (simply titled The Tarot, issued in a very slim 'book' form). Certainly the Mantegna cards as well could have been an influence, and the dates are all within reasonable times of influence.

Of especial note in Hall's booklet is a woodblock print supposedly from the 15th Century of a Wheel of Fortune 'Seven Ages of Man', that includes, as part of the overall image our Bateleur, Hermit and Fool in clear unequivocal similarity (I posted it earlier in another thread):
attachment.php
It would certainly be interesting to see how other, perhaps 'minor' characters in other plays, possibly reflect clearly such an early deck.
 

kwaw

As I concluded in similar thread here:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=747619

I think a simple explanation is to be found via the Italian sources he mined for his storylines, characters, locations and tropes, such as petrarch, cinthio, ariosto, bocaccio etc and in the parallel italian/english text exercises such as to be found in Florio.


As I recal I believe Roseanne makes mention of Hamlet in that thread.

Kwaw
 

baba-prague

It's also important to remember that there were many other visual sources that could have provided inspiration for some of Shakespeare's imagery. For example, emblem books, which were popular:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emblem_book

Personally I don't think there is anything in Shakespeare's plays or poems that could definitely be attributed to his having seen or played tarot. It's possible, but other explanations are equally feasible. I also agree with Kwaw that much can be explained simply by Italian sources.
 

Fulgour

mind shuffling...or shall we deal

When I started a thread about Tarot imagery in Emily Dickinson
there was the same type of attitude, that it simply couldn't be.

How strange? Is this the Aeclectic Geographic Society, or Tarot?
It is very much more likely that Shakespeare knew of Tarot than
that he didn't, but why does he have to have mentioned it at all?

Emily's poetry fairly drips with Tarot energies and constructions,
but New England was too conservative? Don't go out after dark!
 

kwaw

Emily Dickinson

"Sic transit gloria mundi,"
"How doth the busy bee,"
"Dum vivimus vivamus,"
I stay mine enemy!

Oh "veni, vidi, vici!"
Oh caput cap-a-pie!
And oh "memento mori"
When I am far from thee!

Hurrah for Peter Parley!
Hurrah for Daniel Boone!
Three cheers, sir, for the gentleman
Who first observed the moon!

Peter, put up the sunshine;
Patti, arrange the stars;
Tell Luna, tea is waiting,
And call your brother Mars!

Put down the apple, Adam,
And come away with me,
So shalt thou have a pippin
From off my father's tree!

I climb the "Hill of Science,"
I "view the landscape o'er;"
Such transcendental prospect,
I ne'er beheld before!

Unto the Legislature
My country bids me go;
I'll take my india rubbers,
In case the wind should blow!

During my education,
It was announced to me
That gravitation, stumbling,
Fell from an apple tree!

The earth upon an axis
Was once supposed to turn,
By way of a gymnastic
In honor of the sun!

It was the brave Columbus,
A sailing o'er the tide,
Who notified the nations
Of where I would reside!

Mortality is fatal --
Gentility is fine,
Rascality, heroic,
Insolvency, sublime!

Our Fathers being weary,
Laid down on Bunker Hill;
And tho' full many a morning,
Yet they are sleeping still, --

The trumpet, sir, shall wake them,
In dreams I see them rise,
Each with a solemn musket
A marching to the skies!

A coward will remain, Sir,
Until the fight is done;
But an immortal hero
Will take his hat, and run!

Good bye, Sir, I am going;
My country calleth me;
Allow me, Sir, at parting,
To wipe my weeping e'e.

In token of our friendship
Accept this "Bonnie Doon,"
And when the hand that plucked it
Hath passed beyond the moon,

The memory of my ashes
Will consolation be;
Then, farewell, Tuscarora,
And farewell, Sir, to thee!
 

kwaw

Emily Dickinson

Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,
Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!

Oh the Earth was made for lovers, for damsel, and hopeless swain,
For sighing, and gentle whispering, and unity made of twain.
All things do go a courting, in earth, or sea, or air,
God hath made nothing single but thee in His world so fair!
The bride, and then the bridegroom, the two, and then the one,
Adam, and Eve, his consort, the moon, and then the sun;
The life doth prove the precept, who obey shall happy be,
Who will not serve the sovereign, be hanged on fatal tree.
The high do seek the lowly, the great do seek the small,
None cannot find who seeketh, on this terrestrial ball;
The bee doth court the flower, the flower his suit receives,
And they make merry wedding, whose guests are hundred leaves;
The wind doth woo the branches, the branches they are won,
And the father fond demandeth the maiden for his son.
The storm doth walk the seashore humming a mournful tune,
The wave with eye so pensive, looketh to see the moon,
Their spirits meet together, they make their solemn vows,
No more he singeth mournful, her sadness she doth lose.
The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride,
Night unto day is married, morn unto eventide;
Earth is a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true,
And Earth is quite coquettish, and beseemeth in vain to sue.
Now to the application, to the reading of the roll,
To bringing thee to justice, and marshalling thy soul:
Thou art a human solo, a being cold, and lone,
Wilt have no kind companion, thou reap'st what thou hast sown.
Hast never silent hours, and minutes all too long,
And a deal of sad reflection, and wailing instead of song?
There's Sarah, and Eliza, and Emeline so fair,
And Harriet, and Susan, and she with curling hair!
Thine eyes are sadly blinded, but yet thou mayest see
Six true, and comely maidens sitting upon the tree;
Approach that tree with caution, then up it boldly climb,
And seize the one thou lovest, nor care for space, or time!
Then bear her to the greenwood, and build for her a bower,
And give her what she asketh, jewel, or bird, or flower --
And bring the fife, and trumpet, and beat upon the drum --
And bid the world Goodmorrow, and go to glory home
 

Fulgour

Thanks :) Kwaw! (I think...;))

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Complete Poems of 1924.
http://www.bartleby.com/113/
"Pack'd cards" is self-explanatory, and (hinted) further:
"Triumphs" was an old name for "Trumps" viz Tarot.

Act IV. Scene XII. Antony and Cleopatra

Antony:

My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony;
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen,
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine,
Which whilst it was mine had annex’d unto ’t
A million more, now lost; she, Eros, has
Pack’d cards with Cæsar, and false-play’d my glory
Unto an enemy’s triumph.
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.



http://www.bartleby.com/70/45412.html