DARK LADY PLAYERS WORKING PAPER (2009) NUMBER 2

HAMLET: HAMLET’S LETTER TO OPHELIA

Polonius, reading the address of Hamlet’s letter

“To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia.
That’s a vile phrase; beautified is a vile phrase”
(Hamlet, act 2, scene 2,line 109-11)

The New Variorum edition notes that “beautified” is used in letters eg. in Nashe’s
addressing a dedication to Lady Elizabeth Carey. However, the author of
Shakespeare had used the term before in Two Gentlemen of Verona (4,1,55),
and therefore would not have considered it a vile phrase. Beautified is also a
rather pedestrian term—indeed it can have connotations of artificial beauty—to
follow the other epithets.

Theobald in his 7 volume work on the plays therefore suggested that the correct
spelling is beatified.
http://books.google.com/books?id=E1IrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA268&lpg=PA268&dq=
OPHELIA+BEATIFIED&source=bl&ots=PywoKchvW4&sig=UwCdyKdcWOGeOD
Hc_klL597Pi88&hl=en&ei=4VQZSoSHOMyEtweNsvDmDA&sa=X&oi=book_resu
lt&ct=result&resnum=7

This is a term which the New Variorum notes is a term in Catholic theology
“almost peculiarly applied to the Virgin Mary”, meaning being most blessed, or
being turned into a saint.

As an address on an envelope
To; the Celestial and
my soul’s Idol
the most BEATIFIED
Ophelia
all four terms can be applied to the Virgin Mary.
The ‘celestial’ means being in heaven, which is
where Christians thought Mary had ascended.
As an idol she was worshipped, and Ophelia is
the Greek word for Succor, and Mary was the
‘Lady of Succour’ . The address is the functional
equivalent of the angel’s greeting to Mary.
Together with the other evidence it shows
Ophelia is an allegory of the Virgin Mary.

I4th century icon of

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour/
Our Lady of Perpetual Help

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