Extraño, el silencio de Shakespeare sobre las supernovas.
Tuvo que ver con sus propios ojos dos, que se llegaron a ver a pleno día: la supernova de
Tycho (1572) cuando era niño, y la de Kepler (1604) en plena producción
de su periodo trágico. Una imagen muy expresiva, un evento público, de impacto potencial
fortísimo—que Shakespeare no utilizó, si no es por alusión remota y generalista—
a pesar de su interés por las imágenes astronómicas. El silencio
no parece extrañar a David H. Levy en su libro sobre The
Sky in Early Modern English Literature. A
mí sí me extraña.
Veamos sin embargo esos rastros más indirectos. Imágenes sobre cometas,
por ejemplo— un cometa y una supernova no eran tan distintos para quien
nos presenta al reloj del campanario dando la hora en la antigua Roma; por ejemplo:
Julius Caesar – Act 2, Scene 2. Lines: 31-32.
Calpurnia
31. When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
32. The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
También había habido un cometa cinco años antes de la supernova de Tycho.
Henry VI, Part 1 – Act 1, Scene 1. Lines: 1-7.
Bedford
1. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
2. Comets, importing change of times and states,
3. Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
4. And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
5. That have consented unto Henry's death!
6. King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
7. England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.
Otras alusiones similares se encuentran con Shakespeare
Searched—pero no parecen alusiones tópicas, aun suponiendo que
usase Shakespeare "comet" para referirse a las supernovas.
Sobre prodigios celestiales, es significativa y quizá alusiva esta imagen en boca del cardenal Pandulph en King John:
King John – Act 3, Scene 4. Lines: 147-161.
Cardinal Pandulph
147. How green you are and fresh in this old world!
148. John lays you plots; the times conspire with you;
149. For he that steeps his safety in true blood
150. Shall find but bloody safety and untrue.
151. This act so evilly born shall cool the hearts
152. Of all his people and freeze up their zeal,
153. That none so small advantage shall step forth
154. To cheque his reign, but they will cherish it;
155. No natural exhalation in the sky,
156. No scope of nature, no distemper'd day,
157. No common wind, no customed event,
158. But they will pluck away his natural cause
159. And call them meteors, prodigies and signs,
160. Abortives, presages and tongues of heaven,
161. Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John.
Otra de King John:
King John – Act 5, Scene 2. Lines: 47-68.
Lewis
47. My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
48. Being an ordinary inundation;
49. But this effusion of such manly drops,
50. This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
51. Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amazed
52. Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
53. Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
Y, buscando "prodigy", me gusta esta cita de Enrique IV— la más próxima a referirse a una estrella desmandada.
Henry IV, Part 1 – Act 5, Scene 1. Lines: 8-22.
King Henry IV
8. Then with the losers let it sympathize,
9. For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
10. How now, my Lord of Worcester! 'tis not well
11. That you and I should meet upon such terms
12. As now we meet. You have deceived our trust,
13. And made us doff our easy robes of peace,
14. To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel:
15. This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
16. What say you to it? will you again unknit
17. This curlish knot of all-abhorred war?
18. And move in that obedient orb again
19. Where you did give a fair and natural light,
20. And be no more an exhaled meteor,
21. A prodigy of fear and a portent
22. Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
También en Romeo y Julieta la noche se ilumina de manera infrecuente por algún astro, al menos a nivel metafórico:
Romeo and Juliet – Act 3, Scene 5. Lines: 12-16.
Juliet
12. Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I:
13. It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
14. To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
15. And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
16. Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone.
La muerte de César, la de Duncan en Macbeth, la del rey
Juan, la de Ricardo II.... con frecuencia es algún desastre político de
magnitud real el que viene anunciado por "meteoros", "cometas",
"signos", eclipses o "prodigios" en los cielos.
Richard II – Act 2, Scene 4. Lines: 7-17.
Captain
7. 'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.
8. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd
9. And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
10. The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth
11. And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
12. Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap,
13. The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
14. The other to enjoy by rage and war:
15. These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
16. Farewell: our countrymen are gone and fled,
17. As well assured Richard their king is dead.
También son anuncios de guerra civil y confrontación social:
Henry IV, Part 1 – Act 1, Scene 1. Lines: 5-15
King Henry IV
5. No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
6. Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;
7. Nor more shall trenching war channel her fields,
8. Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs
9. Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes,
10. Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
11. All of one nature, of one substance bred,
12. Did lately meet in the intestine shock
13. And furious close of civil butchery
14. Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
15. March all one way and be no more opposed
La supernova de 1604 llegó demasiado tarde para anunciar la muerte de
la reina Isabel, pero podría interpretarse a posteriori como anuncio de
otros portentos políticos como el gunpowder plot. Sin
embargo, no hay señal clara de que Shakespeare lo hiciera. Él, que hace
tantas alusiones a eventos contemporáneos o alude a tantas cosas que
eran la moda o la comidilla de la gente, no parece haber aprovechado
este prodigioso "signo" que le brindó la casualidad de la historia, en
pleno periodo trágico. Desde 1604 no ha habido otra supernova visible a
simple vista, cuánto menos a plena luz del día.
¿Le tentaría a Shakespeare concebirse a sí mismo como una supernova entre sus contemporáneos, como hace su personaje Glendower?
Henry IV, Part 1 – Act 3, Scene 1. Lines: 36-50.
Glendower
36. Cousin, of many men
37. I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
38. To tell you once again that at my birth
39. The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
40. The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
41. Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
42. These signs have mark'd me extraordinary;
43. And all the courses of my life do show
44. I am not in the roll of common men.
45. Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea
46. That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
47. Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?
48. And bring him out that is but woman's son
49. Can trace me in the tedious ways of art
50. And hold me pace in deep experiments.
Si lo hizo, si se concibió a sí mismo como una supernova,
cometa o astro "whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken",
lo expresó de modo indirecto y críptico—quizá a través del mismo
Glendower, parodiándose a sí mismo, y emitiendo signos tan ambiguos
como los de cualquier astrólogo.
—oOo—
