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Early Modern England Encyclopedia
By Gabrielle Beard, inspired by
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According to English canon law (statutes) and common law (customary practices), suicide was understood as a homicide and was therefore a mortal sin. Firm Christian beliefs anchored early modern English culture and thus heavily influenced the law. The Bible’s reflections on suicide, most often understood from the perspective of Judas’ death, yielded negative stigma of the act. In commentaries from the Middle Ages, St. Augustine frowned upon suicide and instructed that a suicide was only legitimate when it was commanded by God as it was considered to be against natural law. Suicide was taken very seriously and so had serious repercussions in the early modern period, including in plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
In the early modern period, taking one’s own life by suicide resulted in negative consequences for the individual who ended their own life and for their families. A suicide’s property might be forfeited to the state. Most often, they were denied Christian burials completely. Often times, their body would have a stake driven through it, and when they were buried, they would receive no prayers and no burial in consecrated ground. Depending on the manner of suicide, how the body was dealt with afterward also varied. If the cause of death was by jumping from a tall place, the body might be buried beneath a mountain. If the victim drowned, they might be buried in sand.
While English canon and common law frowned upon suicide, suicide in the classical world was often considered an act of honor or bravery. According to Stoicism, a Hellenistic philosophy of will and the self, suicide was a mastery of emotion and a triumph over oneself; instead of being conquered by another, an individual conquered themselves. For example, when Brutus dies by suicide at the end of
In the Roman world, individuals chose suicide in order to escape public shame for their actions or failures. Women particularly might choose to take their own life to avoid shame. The most famous example of this is the ancient Roman story of Lucretia, who was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, an Etruscan prince. In Shakespeare’s
During the Renaissance, the definition and significance of suicide began to blur. Martyrdom was looked upon as an honorable act, but the Church began to debate at what point a martyr became a suicide victim. In the early 17th century, the poet and churchman John Donne’s
Shakespeare’s plays and poems draw a fine line between disgrace and honor when it comes to suicide. Many of Shakespeare’s tragedies feature suicide, but the forms and methods of the act are represented with both dignity and despair. How it should be interpreted depends on the character of the one dying by suicide. For instance, the suicides of Romeo and Juliet are depicted as acts of despair borne of misguided passion, while the death of Brutus is portrayed as an act of strength. The onstage, self-inflicted deaths of Anthony and Cleopatra represent their surrender to passion, while Goneril’s offstage suicide confirms her selfishness. Hamlet also famously considers suicide, but ulimately shys away from the act due to Christian beliefs.