successor was replaced by a mythological death and rebirth, like that of Osiris. T h e king was identified with the god who had died and come back to life again, and acted out his death, dismemberment, and rebirth in dramatic rituals rather than by actually dying. T h e scholar Theodore Gaster described four types of ritual in the ancient world o f the N e a r East that followed one another in a seasonal sequence o f M o r t i f i c a t i o n , Purgation, Invigoration, a n d J u b i l a t i o n , all related to the death and rebirth o f the g o d or king. S o m e t i m e s all four elements c o u l d be c o m b i n e d in an elaborate ritual drama that involved all the members of society as actors in the play, whose stage was the whole city, and whose subject was the death and rebirth of the god-king. Gaster says ancient ritual drama was of two types, rituals of henosis or emptying, and rituals of plerosis or filling
Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN GUILDENSTERN 106 Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. HAMLET Sir, a whole history. GUILDENSTERN The king, sir,— HAMLET Ay, sir, what of him? GUILDENSTERN Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. HAMLET With drink, sir? GUILDENSTERN No, my lord, rather with choler. HAMLET Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler. GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and start not so wildly from my affair. HAMLET I am tame, sir: pronounce. 107 GUILDENSTERN The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. HAMLET You are welcome. GUILDENSTERN Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a
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