PAINTING SEVEN
THAT SKULL HAD a TONGUE IN IT
That skull had a tongue in it, Oil on linen, 30 x 40 x 7/8 in (76.20 x 101.60 x 2.222 cm), Click on image for lightbox view.
In this painting, the viewer sees the trap room of the theatre. Located directly beneath the stage, this room contains the physical infrastructure and machinery that raises and lowers the traps, hydraulic scenic machinery, fog machine equipment and the like.
The moment captured in this painting from Act V, Scene 1 is during the gravedigger’s speech about the Christian burial rites being afforded to Ophelia despite her having committed suicide. While on the surface this scene appears to be comic relief, the text actually betrays the author’s profound knowledge of English law at the time and his facile ability of incorporating it seamlessly into the dialogue of two rough hewn clowns. The argument itself was based directly on a famous case from 1554 - Hales v Petit - a property dispute legally complicated by the apparent suicide of one of the property owners.
The actor playing the gravedigger (who is double cast as Polonius, traditionally and in this production) reaches for the second skull he tosses out of the grave, being handed to him by a stagehand. On the stage level there are scenic elements in the form of obelisk monuments surrounded by a green fog along with the first skull the gravedigger has already tossed out. The Corambis grave marker is a reference to the original name given to the character of Polonius in the First Quarto printing of Hamlet. It is a play on words of the Cecil family motto: Cor unum, via una or One Heart, One Way. Cor ambis translates to double hearted, and is a lampoon of William Cecil’s two faced nature. The Gravestone in the middle is a play on the aforementioned Hale v Petit case, but here the name of the trial is inverted to appear as a proper name. The obelisk on the right bears the de Vere coat of arms and motto. It is markedly smaller than the Corambis stone. As in life, Anne Cecil (Ophelia here) was granted a sumptuous resting place in Westminster Abbey while Oxford was (supposedly) interned in a Hackney Churchyard.
In the doorframe of the room, backlit by the blue run-lights, we see the actress playing Gertrude being quick changed into her costume for the funeral scene coming up. Her dress is covered in gold embroidery, that at a closer look the viewer sees is actually made up of a patterns of v’s and ox’s. There are also props stored along the back wall of the room: the torches seen previously in the fight rehearsal, a throne chair which would have been used in the Gertrude chamber scene, and a couple of spears used by the sentries. Other clues pointing to de Vere include: the pressure gauge on the ceiling with the indicator pointing to 17, the grave trap /1000 LB signage (an allusion to de Vere’s 1000 pound annuity); the 40 on the counterweights (de Vere’s code name), and the repeating v’s in the framework of the lift platform. The exit sign is a blunt reminder that this painting is about death.