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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Hamlet: That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once; how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murther! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not? (V, i, 83-87).
“Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murther!” Is there anything more in this phrase than meets the casual eye? Though the skull and jaw-bone of Hamlet's brooding comment are without doubt human, it has been suggested by no less an authority than the late Professor Skeat that here is an allusion to an old tradition according to which Cain killed Abel with the jaw-bone of an ass. The suggestion might seem almost fantastic were it not for several corroborative circumstances: namely, that the tradition was English; that it was wide-spread and familiar; that it found a place in the mystery plays; and that Shakspere was not unaccustomed to making allusions to the primitive and cruder art of the religious drama.
The present paper was prepared to be read before the Modern Language Association at the meeting held at Baltimore, Dec. 1921. After Professor Bunnell's sudden death, Sept. 30, 1921, the MS. was found among his papers, substantially in form for publication. In accordance with Mrs. Bonnell's desire I have undertaken to see it through the press. My own notes, added to his foot-note references, are enclosed within brackets. Acknowledgements are due Professor Hans Froelicher of Goucher College, who has been to particular pains in answering questions relating to the history of art.
1 F2, Chaplesse; Q2 Choples.
2 Skeat, Notes and Queries, 6th Ser., II, 143 (1880); ibid., A Student's Pastime, Oxford, 1896, 137. See Emerson, “Legends of Cain,” in P. M. L. A., XXL, 831-929.
3 Emerson, op. cit. pp. 853 ff., 859.
4 Vernon MS. (Horstmann, Sammlung Altengl. Leg., p. 224.)
5 Wm. Jordan's Creation of the World (1611), founded on the Origo Mundi (cf. n. 9); cf. Emerson, p. 867.
6 Towneley (11.323-27). The date of the MS. is 1450-1500; of the play probably 1360-1410.
7 Cf. Mid. Yorkshire chavvle to chew imperfectly.
8 Hegge. The MS. is dated 1468. The dates of the first seven plays are probably much older.
9 Cf.. also XIV or XV cent. Cornish Origo Mundi (cf. n. 5) : “Take this on the jaw-bone” (tan hemma war an challa, 11. 539f.).
10 Cornish play of Creation (Philol. Soc. Trans., ll.1112f.; cf. Emerson, 854).
11 Breton Play, c. 1550 (translated by 1' abbe E. Bernard) : La Création du Monde in Revue Celtique, IX, X, but particularly XI, 259.
12 Ibid., XI, 301.
13 [No further reference given].
14 [On the priority of these two forms see, however, Marquand's review of C. R. Post's A History of European and American Sculpture, (1921), in The Literary Review, April 22, 1922, p. 598].
16 Emerson, op. cit..
16 [At this point it was Dr. Bonnell's intention to illustrate his talk. He remarks: “An amusing example—if I have time to show it—is the case of @
the Archangel's wing from a painting of Meister Bertram of Hamburg.“ On Bertram see infra].
17 Murder of Abel (Paris), 1520.
18 In the drama it appears on the continent only in the Breton play of 1550. [Dr. Bonnell had noted on a card that the Basilica of S. Paolo contains the story of Cain and Abel, but added that “the guide (Lateran, 53, 72) does not describe composition”].
